Town debates ongoing projects post-election 

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Strathmore was in hot debate during its final public meeting regarding the assignment of public resources this close to the operation of a municipal election.

Claude Brown, an outspoken member of the public, was granted time to address council during the meeting and express his concerns.

Among those, was the potential to see a walkway through a local wetland established, though this was ultimately referenced as an example. 

“I am not 100 per cent certain that people want a walkway put through the wetlands, and seeing that council’s term is coming to an end in … 33 days, it seems a little (like an) overreach to be tasking administration with work that is going to take them into January,” he said.  “What we are doing here is we are actually putting workload on the administration that the next council will have to bear the burden of, and so I do not believe that work should be put past the term of this administration.”

Brown suggested the particular resolution be limited to a feasibility study and a cost estimation, as progress regarding the project would likely be an overreach by the current council. 

The thought process effectively described aversion to the idea of assigning work on a project to administration, which would then be downloaded onto the next council to see completed when a potential new councillor would not have had an opportunity to vote on the subject. 

Mayor Pat Fule pointed out some items which had been discussed prior to Brown’s commentary before council were regarding projects which would be required to see completion by the next council. 

“We do not have any more public meetings for the next 33 days, but we still are councillors for the Town of Strathmore. I still have duties and things to do,” said Fule. 

Provisions within the Municipal Government Act are in place to address new council members being allowed the opportunity to review the full text of ongoing proposed bylaws before voting on them. This same philosophy is generally applied to ongoing projects. 

Under the Election Act, projects, policies, budgets, and other significant actions are largely to be refrained from seeing new activity that a previous council would not have time to resolve prior to an election. 

This generally refers however to restraint from initiating new council business as opposed to rushing through resolutions of ongoing activities. 

No voting took place by council as a result of or in response to Brown’s presentation, nor was his suggestion accepted as information.