Locally elected officials – town councillors – are to represent the people.
If they aren’t taking into consideration the input of the local citizens, then the local democratic system simply isn’t working. It seems, as of late, that our local democratic system isn’t communicating with the citizens. No communication equals failed system.
The Town of Sundre offers an open house to listen to the citizens twice a year: once in the spring and once in the fall.
What is the purpose of these open house events?
According to a Facebook post from the Town of Sundre from September 6, 2023, “The Municipality of Sundre is holding an open house for electors of Sundre. Please join us to provide feedback on levels of service, future capital projects, or to ask questions on process, and strategies, etc. This is your opportunity to participate in the decisions that council makes on behalf of the electors of the municipality of Sundre. Members of council and administration will be present to answer your questions and record your feedback. ”
Participate in the decisions! That sounds like a great opportunity!
However, I saw two failures of this “open house” system this past fall:
1. Time of day – Town residents have been providing feedback to town council and administration every year. The feedback is clear: holding the open house events on a weekday from 1 - 4 p.m. means that the majority of the employed residents can not attend. Every year, the residents give their feedback, and every year, the open houses continue to be scheduled during regular working hours. The Highway 27 information session was scheduled for April 24, 2024 from 5 - 8 p.m. Why can some public sessions be scheduled for the evening but others cannot?
2. Lack of advertising – This year’s fall open house took place on Sept. 10 from 1 - 4 p.m. How did they advertise? They posted a “reminder” on their Facebook Page at 12:34 p.m. that day and put a poster up on the Town of Sundre office door at about the same time. After inquiring with the Town of Sundre about this lack of communication, a town employee emailed me and wrote, “We admit we did not do a very good job of advertising this important event for the community and our council. We missed placing an advertisement in the local paper, and on our website and social media sites. When this error was realized, a poster was placed on the door of the town office, and the reminder was posted to the town’s Facebook page.”
So, I would assume that nobody showed up to the open house on Sept. 10 and that it was a huge waste of council and administration’s time (and our taxpayer money).
My question is: will this open house be rescheduled?
Or will council and administration simply say, “Oh well, nobody ever comes to those things anyway.”
If we want a well-functioning local government, council and administration need to communicate better.
And we, as citizens, must participate and communicate when given the opportunity!
Kim Free,
Sundre
