BOYLE – A number of small policy changes approved by Boyle village council last week are just the beginning of a process that will see sometimes-decades-old practices brought up to date.
There were no Earth-shattering changes made at council’s Sept. 7 meeting, but 13 separate motions to accept changes to 13 policies covering topics ranging from code of ethics and conditions of employment to leaves of absence, clothing allowances and holidays.
“It was conveyed to me when I was hired that council wanted their new CAO to review and update, if needed, the village’s policies, bylaws, procedures, and planning documents,” said CAO Warren Griffin in a Sept. 8 e-mail. “Such a review will take a considerable amount of time; however, we have begun this work.”
Important planning documents like the municipality’s Municipal Development Plan and Land Use Bylaw are 30- and 20-years-old respectively, Griffin said, and will be re-written during his tenure, as directed by council.
Many of the changes made to the 13 policies were simply grammatical while others were updated to fall in line with legislation from other levels of government and other best practices, for instance, a decrease in the probationary period for new employees from six months to 90 days. The village’s work alone policy was also revamped to fall in line with that of the Federation of Alberta Gas Co-Ops.
Another standout is the village’s official, permanent recognition of Sept. 30 as National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and a statutory holiday, is now embedded in policy, joining Athabasca County which did so in 2021, and more recently the Town of Athabasca.
A simplification of the dress code for office employees saw the former list of acceptable and unacceptable attire reduced to business casual. Interestingly, the former casual Friday attire list is also stricken, except for business casual and any item of clothing made of denim.
An addition, a change to the code of ethics instructs employees “to remain politically neutral during working hours.”
The village’s policy committee, which is made up of all five council members, met Aug. 24 to discuss the proposed changes from administration and voted to bring all the policies, which included changes to the rate schedule and off-site levy fee, forward to the next council meeting for approval Sept. 7.
Griffin explained in his administrative report to the policy committee that during the initial gathering of documents an inconsistency was found between the bylaw and a 2008 amendment.
“To further complicate the matter, an updated bylaw was drafted in 2008 by EXH Engineering. It is the opinion of administration that the draft was not brought before council due to the need and expense of a Utility Servicing Study and an updated Municipal Development Plan,” Griffin noted. “The village will not have an updated MDP for a year.”
The changes to the fee schedule were amended to reflect the off-site levy values stated in the current bylaw — $1,000 commercial and industrial as well as all dwellings besides mobile homes, which will pay $750.
“Moving forward, we will continue through the whole policy book, but it might not be a whole section at a time,” Griffin said. “The establishment of the policy committee and that process will make it easier to keep policies up to date and allow for council to review them on a regular basis.”
