ATHABASCA – Athabasca County councillors will be spending their Leap Year Day in chambers for their second February meeting. The day will start with a public hearing on Bylaw 014-2023, the Gale Outline Plan, which would subdivide land within the Hamlet of Ellscott.
After, councillors will hear from a variety of delegations, starting with Grade 6 French immersion students from LTIS. The students will have the opportunity to ask council and the CAO, Bob Beck, questions about local government and what a municipality does.
From there, councillors will shift gears to tackle the quarterly presentation from local law enforcement. Staff Sgt. Mark Hall of the Athabasca RCMP and Sgt. Dennis Properzi of the Boyle detachment will be presenting their Q3 numbers, which go from Oct. 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2023.
The last delegation of the day is James MacDonald, executive director for the Northern Lights Library System — similar to his earlier presentation at the Town of Athabasca, James will be presenting on the yearly numbers from the library, and how county residents can benefit from the library services.
Next up will be a series of items stemming from the Feb. 20 committee of the whole meeting. Councillors will be voting on their policy for emergency/urgent application communication, voting to rescind the airport committee policy, reviewing the council compensation terms of reference and directing administration to enlist a third party to investigate a code of conduct complaint.
Councillors will be discussing the January 2024 financial report, a Land and Property Rights Tribunal Decision, as well as all three delegations. There will be three information items, including council calendars for March and April, correspondence, and a Water North Coalition meeting with the Town of Athabasca.
The open session will conclude with councillor reports as always, before council deals with two closed session items — discussion around board appointments is covered by Section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP), and a discussion around housing will be protected by Section 21(1) of FOIP, intergovernmental relations.
