WESTLOCK – Committee appointments, meeting dates and the attendees for future Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ conferences until 2025 were set at the Town of Westlock’s first council meeting following the Oct. 18 municipal election.
A little pomp and circumstance greeted mayor Ralph Leriger and the six councillors who officially took the oath of office under the watchful eyes of Westlock RCMP Staff Sgt. Al Baird and Cpl. Leigh Drinkwater Oct. 25, who were decked out in their Red Serge uniforms. Family of the new councillors were also in attendance, while all three recently-retired councillors had planned to attend, but couldn’t due to COVID-19 space restrictions.
Committee-wise, Leriger noted that as part of a set of guiding principles, they try to pair new and seasoned councillors and had gone through the list earlier during the day — see the graphic below for the list of the councillors and their committees. Councillors report back to council on their committee work once a month during a regular meeting.
“We want to rely on people’s strengths and interests and their personal circumstances. And we want to build generalists, not specialists,” said Leriger. “And also when you carry over from year to year we recognize that there can be ongoing projects and some continuity is important.”
Council will continue with two regular and one committee of the whole meetings monthly, except for July, August and December — following Monday’s meeting there are three regular and one COW meeting left in 2021. Regular meetings are every second and fourth Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Heritage Building, while the COW meetings slot in between — holiday Mondays push all those meetings to Tuesdays.
The attendance line up for the tentative 2022-2025 Federation of Canadian Municipalities conferences was also set. For the scheduled May 2022 event in Regina, Leriger will be joined by Murtaza Jamaly and Jon Kramer, while at the 2023 event in Toronto, the Westlock contingent will feature Leriger, Abby Keyes and Curtis Snell. Since the 2024 event is in Calgary all of council is invited, while for the 2025 conference in Ottawa it’ll be Leriger, Laura Morie and Randy Wold.
CAO Simone Wiley said roughly $5,000 is budgeted per each councillor to attend, a figure that changes depending on the location. Wiley also attends the conference as the national administrator (CAMA) conference is always held right before FCM.
“We’ve received and will get more grants from FCM … look at the grant we received for the Spirit Centre (solar panels). FCM is a really important organization and our community has benefited greatly from being members,” said Leriger, who along with Jamaly are big supporters of FCM.
The seating arrangement was also codified, with Leriger at the centre of table with Snell to his left, followed by Morie and Wold, while to his right are Jamaly, Keyes and Kramer. Jamaly was also sworn in as deputy mayor and will serve until Feb. 28, 2022.
