SUNDRE – More than half of the municipal council’s members exceeded their allotted allowance to cover expenses such as travel, meetings, as well as attending conferences and conventions.
Mayor Richard Warnock’s allowance is set at $17,000, but he ended 2023 with an overage of $4,280.
By far the lengthiest list of expenses accrued by anyone else on council, the 2.5-pages include items such as a variety of conferences, meetings and workshops as well as associated travel per diems.
While the expenses mostly ranged around $40 to a few hundred dollars, there were some that went well beyond that.
Those included participation at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference at $1,400 including the meeting and travel per diem, as well as the Alberta Municipalities Convention and Trade Show, which including the cost of hotel, registration, meals, travel per diem and meeting time added up to $3,560. Attending the Rural Municipalities of Alberta conference, including the cost of registration, hotel, mileage, and travel as well as meeting per diem, accrued an expense of $3,162.
A conversation with a provincial leader in Edmonton also does not come too cheap, with mileage, travel and meeting per diem racking up a total expense of $586.80 for a chance to speak with MLA Devin Dreeshen, the minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors who represents the district of Innisfail-Sylvan Lake.
Meanwhile, councillors are each allotted $7,000, with half of the six councillors going over.
Coun. Owen Petersen racked up an overage of $2,011, Isaac went over by almost $4,000, and Vardas was over by nearly $3,200.
Coun. Todd Dalke, who did not attend the Alberta Municipalities convention, only spent about half of his allowance, with some $3,694 remaining.
Coun. Connie Anderson also did not attend the Alberta Municipalities convention, and boasted a remaining balance of almost $4,500.
Coun. Jaime Marr, who did attend the Alberta Municipalities convention, came a bit closer to the wire but nevertheless stayed in the black with a remaining balance of $797.20.
Administration includes monthly updates on council’s expenses related to conducting official town business in meeting agendas, which are publicly available on the municipality’s website with the full 2023 year-end report in the Jan. 22 meeting package.
