During his report to council during their regular meeting on Sept. 21, Mayor Rick Bonnett mentioned he’d met with the Water Commission earlier that day.
Recent changes to the Municipal Government Act (MGA) will affect the Water Commission and regional services.
“That basically takes some of the red tape away,” said Bonnett, adding there is also the future possibility that non-elected officials will be allowed to sit on the regional commission boards.
“That could be interesting, and we could also divest assets, which we always had to do under ministerial approval.”
Another change is that now, two municipalities could form a regional commission together, instead of the previously required three to five municipalities.
That means some inter-municipal issues could be handled by boards or commissions instead of ICFs.
Letter from BIA
Council received a letter of introduction from Kisha Daniels, co-founder of Black and Indigenous Alliance (previously Black and Indigenous Alliance Alberta) and Blackfalds Against Racism.
The letter stated that the group will be holding a anti-racism conversation in Ponoka on Oct. 17 at 1:30 p.m., and requested that the town provide an indoor space for the event, and invited the mayor and councillors to attend.
They also requested to be allowed to come before council as a delegation.
Public utility lot lease policy
The policy was presented at the Sept. 8 regular meeting, where council asked administration to revisit the draft for the proposed policy to ensure the policy allowed for the assumption of existing leases when there are subsequent property owners to a property where there is a current lease.
With the change, the policy was approved.
Bank signing authority
Council voted to remove former CAO Albert Flootman as a signing authority for cheques and to add Tim Schmidt, general manager of planning and infrastructure.