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Vol. 14, No. 8, Wednesday, January 9, 2019 www.LamontLeader.com
Council to send Mayor to Quebec City conference BY JOHN MATHER Bruderheim Mayor Karl Hauch will attend the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Quebec City from May 30 to June 2. The discussion to send a member to the conference generated quite a bit of discussion before a vote to send one member was taken. CAO Patty Podobororozny pointed out while council didn’t send anyone to the FCM conference in 2018, the previous costs to send a member to an eastern Canadian conference ranged from $3,500 to $4,000 per person. When discussion on the motion to send a person to the conference began councillor Len Falardeau erupted. “Imagine how irate our citizen will feel if we’re spending $4,000 to send someone on a holiday to Quebec City,” he said. “This is ridiculous. We can’t afford it. Our town is not financially strong enough to be sending people to Quebec City for a vacation.” Councillor Wayne Olechow felt the meetings would be beneficial. “We’re saving money at the Alberta Municipal Association conference this year, since it’s in Edmonton. I think this is no different than sending a couple of people to the AUMA conference.” Deputy Mayor Pat Lee said it was about meeting with other municipalities. “You can’t shut yourself off from the rest of the world. It’s a way to engage with other municipalities that may experience similar problems.” She didn’t think the residents would object, “because they know there’s a cost to us working on their behalf.” Councillor George Campbell opposed the expenditure making the point the library was facing a shortfall of just about the same amount as the conference costs. “We had a delegation come from the library and state they’re $5,000 short in their budget, yet we discuss sending someone to FCM and think nothing of leaving their situation behind. I wonder where our priorities are.” Olechow wondered if the monies were in the budget for the trip and Podoborozny explained they were. Mayor Hauch rebutted the comments saying the conferences were not a vacation or holiday. “We get good ideas coming from these confer-
Traffic was slowed down big time on Tuesday and part of Wednesday due to an enormous vessel being moved east on Highway 14, north on Highway 834 into Lamont County and then along Highway 15 west to the Inter Pipeline Heartland Petrochemical Complex on RR 220. The historic super load weighs 820 tonnes and measures 96 metres long – making it about as heavy as eight blue whales, thought to be the largest creature ever on Earth. ences. Our tax-free-for-three program came from listening to some people who had a similar program in Saskatchewan. You also make some good contacts at these.” Councillor Patrick Crawford stated he was glad they were considering only one person. “By having one person represent us … I don’t think that’s a bad idea. We’ll get some good ideas back from it.”
He added the town could send additional delegates to the AUMA conference in Edmonton. Council approved the trip with Councillors Falardeau and Campbell opposing. Campbell said he felt the town should send the top delegate for the town and that would be the mayor. The council agreed that Mayor Hauch should represent Bruderheim at the conference.