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County passes on further council training

In a 6-3 vote, councillors decline further ratepayer-funded training for elected officials
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Athabasca County councillors voted against further training for elected officials in a 6-3 vote March 31. That's not to say they're not allowed to take additional training, but it will be on their own dime.

ATHABASCA – If Athabasca County councillors are looking for training beyond that already provided by the county, they will have to do it on their own time and dime. 

At county council’s March 31 meeting a motion by Coun. Tracy Holland to authorize councillors to attend conflict resolution training, media training and workplace violence, discrimination, harassment and bullying training, was defeated 3-6. 

Holland had brought forward information on the courses, which she said were important for councillors to fulfil their duties as elected representatives and while there are a lot of courses available through Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) for instance, councillors are often interested in different offerings, while essential courses are overlooked. 

“There's very few of them, and they're very important topics that would be beneficial for not only our council to work together more efficiently, but it would be helpful for staff and for our ratepayers to be served,” said Holland. 

The conflict resolution course was offered at $26.95 per attendee, but only $20.95 for eight to 12 people at a time. The media training course comes in at $75 per attendee. 

“I truly believe that asking the ratepayers to pay for us to have elective training is excessive. Mandatory training for our positions has already been paid for by the ratepayer,” said Coun. Natasha Kapitaniuk, pointing out that a recent online emergency training session still required the rental of a venue and meals for those in attendance. 

“I really feel like that our ratepayer is our employer and just like any job if you want to learn more about it as an adult, and an employee, it is up to you,” she went on to say. “There are libraries, there are a plethora of courses you can take on the Internet at your own time and your own dime if you feel that you want to learn more. I don't think that it's the ratepayers’ responsibility to pay for the things that we are wanting but are not required to do our job.” 

“The cost is very minimal, considering that a lot of this is done through the government or through an elected officials program. Whereas if we were to try to seek that on our own, it would be more costly and a lot of people probably would not choose to do that,” Holland said. 

Coun. Gary Cromwell agreed with Holland saying while the cost to ratepayers is certainly a large consideration, he believes the overall benefit would be well worth the cost. 

“I believe that this is paramount to our being able to continue to grow and work together properly, adequately and professionally,” he said. “I believe that if we all get on board and do the training as a team and work through it, it will make our job more efficient, it'll get the day-to-day operation more effective, more smooth, and therefore it will be more of a benefit to our ratepayers.” 

Holland, Cromwell and Coun. Kelly Chamzuk voted in favour, while the six others voted against and the motion was not carried with the 3-6 vote.  

A second motion by Holland to instruct administration to investigate the costs of a half-day course on councillor code of conduct passed 6-3. 

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