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Council should spend more money on travel to conferences

An Athabasca town councillor suggested the town should increase its spending on councillors’ travel to conferences around the province and country to as much as $20,000 each year.
Cherniwchan wants council to increase spending on travel to conferences.
Cherniwchan wants council to increase spending on travel to conferences.

An Athabasca town councillor suggested the town should increase its spending on councillors’ travel to conferences around the province and country to as much as $20,000 each year.

Councillor Lionel Cherniwchan said council was being too conservative in spending on conferences, which came in at $5,000 last year, significantly lower than the $18,000 budgeted for such travel.

Cherniwchan explained he was all for taking a prudent approach when it came to dipping into the public purse for travel expenses, but $15,000 to $20,000 seemed a reasonable figure for conference spending.

“We can be penny wise and pound foolish,” he said. “We have to go out there, make ourselves known and network so the town derives the benefit.

“You can take that (budgeting) a little too far. Maybe we don’t want to spend $40,000 but $15,000 might be reasonable.”

Municipal conferences on a wide range of issues take place throughout the province and beyond, with some at highly desirable locations, such as Whistler, B.C.

Travel for councillors to such conferences can be a contentious issue.

During his election campaign, Mayor Roger Morrill said he intended to tackle spending on travel expenses in the council.

Following Tuesday night’s meeting of council, Morrill said one upcoming conference in Kananaskis would cost the taxpayer $2,200 plus meals for each attendee, which is difficult to justify.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t go to conferences or continued education, but let’s be cognizant of the taxpayers,” he said.

Cherniwchan argued the value of attending conferences shouldn’t be underestimated.

“One of the reasons Northern Lakes College is in our community is because (at a conference) I sat down next to a gentlemen who happened to be the president of Northern Lakes.

“From there, the seed was planted.”

Cherniwchan said town council’s spending on conferences was far below that of neighboring municipalities, some of whom have traveled as far as Nova Scotia and Toronto for seminars, spending tens of thousands of dollars each year.

Councillor Christine Nelson proposed the members sit down and discuss which conferences they deem important to attend, instead of taking an ad hoc approach to the matter.

“In the past, it’s been very vague. We’ve missed some very good conferences,” she said.

“We have to decide which ones are a priority,” agreed Morrill.

“We don’t have to go to many, but we want to go to the ones the town will benefit from,” said councillor George Hawryluk.

Councillor Tim Verhaeghe also agreed that council might not be getting the full benefit of the opportunities these conferences present.

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