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Proud to be part of your past, present and future since 1887 June 13, 2013 | 92 pages
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Inside
By STACEY ROY sroy@perfprint.ca
EMC News - It’s not the usual item on Smiths Falls’ council agenda, but the inability for municipalities to accept service club donations from lottery proceeds has hit close to home with the only remedy, it would seem, to come from a Criminal Code of Canada amendment. A little known rule that disallows service clubs from donating lottery revenue from bingos and Nevada tickets for municipal recreation facilities came to Mayor Dennis Staples’ attention in 2007 when the Smiths Falls Kinsmen attempted to build their Kinsmen Pavillion at Lower Reach Park. The club was told it couldn’t use its fundraised dollars because of how the money had been raised. “I was fascinated by that,” Staples said. “I wasn’t aware that that was a requirement.” It turns out many politicians at every level feel the same way. Last week the local mayor attended the annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference in Vancouver where he formally presented his request for FCM to move this issue forward by asking all member municipalities to pass resolutions on the issue. “My item is still with the
Area woman aims to raise $10,000 $10 000 as well as awareness for mental illness. — Page SF12
FEATURE
Genetic testing gives one local woman the power over her health. — Page SF16
RELAY FOR LIFE
Photo by LAURIE WEIR
Majors Malcolm and Faith Cameron of the Salvation Army get into the groove of the Relay for Life Friday night at the new Smiths Falls District Collegiate Institute site. See Page 5 for more on the night at SFDCI.
sroy@perfprint.ca
EMC News - A handful of passionate residents have begun to look into the fall of 2014 and their chances at a life in municipal politics. Those who have been there and are doing that urge first-time hopefuls to do their homework before filing their papers next year. Ron Stronski, town watchdog, has been sitting in his designated seat in the council chambers for over 50 years and has become a favourite contact for residents wanting some background on council life. Stronski says he has already been approached by a
number of people in preparation for the 2014 election and has one piece of advice for anyone wishing to enter municipal politics – start attending municipal meetings now. “See what council is all about,” he said. In the last three terms Stronski can recall only three candidates who sat in the audience of regular committee and council meetings six months before an election. Many tell him they catch the process of council on the local cable network, but Stronski and other past and current councillors counter it is at committee-of-thewhole meetings that items are
debated and the realities of what sitting councillors must consider become clear. “That’s where all the action is,” Stronski said. Coun. Shawn Pankow agrees, adding his introduction to municipal politics in 2010 included a steep learning curve upon realizing the workload, process and bureaucracy with which serving the Town of Smiths Falls comes. “Being a rookie councillor it’s hard to understand what the job entails until you’re involved,” Pankow said. He encourages prospective incoming councillors to be
proactive and seek answers to their questions on a topic by researching themselves and adding this to the information received by town staff. Political life was a steep learning curve for Coun. Chris Cummings as well, who says he wishes he had entered into the race earlier. The reality that council peers around the table came to their positions with their own list of priorities and action items to accomplish became very clear for Pankow early on in his municipal career and reinforced that each of the seven council members are parts of a whole.
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FCM,” the mayor confirmed. The earliest the FCM Standing Committee on Municipal Finance and Intergovernmental Arrangements will discuss the request is September 2013, but Staples hopes the issue could be addressed earlier if possible. “That’s what I’m pushing for, advocating for and hoping for,” he said. The local mayor and Kinsmen Club worked for several years to receive their exemption from the existing law, but Staples continues to lobby for a change to the Criminal Code of Canada that makes it illegal for any government (except the province) to accept funds from lottery. The mayor feels the situation can’t continue in a time when federal and provincial governments are pulling back their funding and maintenance requirements continue to add pressure to municipal budgets. So far his efforts have fallen on deaf ears at the federal level. “I have failed to find a political champion at the federal level to take up this cause,” the mayor said. Questions remain to be answered including why this rule is enforced when communities with See FEDERAL page SF3
Political insiders urge municipal election hopefuls to get active By STACEY ROY
See a future Record News for a fourpage pullout on this year’s Relay for Life at SFDCI June 7-8.
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Mayor seeks federal support to amend Criminal Code of Canada
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This is something former councillor Stirling Bennett came to understand during the course of his 15 years at the council table. And it’s a message he feels new councillors need to receive before their first day on the job. “No one person can accomplish a lot. You have to have the ability to work with the group of councillors,” Bennett said. He retired from municipal politics in 2006 and encourages council hopefuls to become familiar with what provincial legislation such as the Municipal Act can do. See ELECTION page SF4
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