Current city councillors and administration are facing an Oct. 1 deadline to complete two ministerial orders issued by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
As the Oct. 20 municipal election looms, Medicine Hat’s city councillors remain unsure if they have to fulfil two Alberta Ministerial Orders directed at a July 21 meeting after they were presented a municipal report that led to findings of irregular, improper and improvident governance.
The given deadline for complying with the orders is Oct. 1, 19 days before the mayor and councillors face an election.
The report was ordered in October 2024 by then Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric Mciver, and included three directives issued to the city, one of which, publication of the inspection report on municipal platform, has been completed.
However, the two other directives have not. One requires all members of council and CAO, as well as the designated officers of the city, to complete a respectful workplace training workshop that meets the approval of the minister. According to the ministerial directive, all participants must be registered by Oct. 1.
With the Oct. 20 election quickly approaching and possibility of current councillors not seeking re-election, council questioned the directive’s purpose at this time.
“For the cost benefit for doing it in the hopes of having a few weeks at the end where we’re implementing it, I feel like it’s setting the next council better for that to occur at the beginning of next council,” said Mayor Linnsie Clark. “I’m not opposed to respectful workplace training, I think it’s fantastic, it just seems like maybe not good value for the money at this moment.”
Coun. Alison Van Dyke sought more information on the deadline of the ministerial orders and proposed the possibility of seeking an extension.
Coun. Robert Dumanowski quickly expressed concern over asking to relax deadlines, given the mandatory nature of the directives given by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
“I thought I heard they would be mandated and they’d be required to be completed.” said Dumanowski, who asked acting city manager Tarolyn Aaserud to provide council details on a possible extension by its next general meeting on Sept. 2.
“So we’re not working from a hypothetical or the hopes of extension once we see that timeline … I just don’t want to be offside, and my sense is those directions were for this council, not for last council, not for the next council, for this council.”
Coun. Allison Knodel echoed Dumanowski’s concerns about the idea to pass on any workplace training sessions to the next council.
“My thoughts are that these recommendations are for us,” said Knodel. “They’re not for the next group, although they will affect the next group.”
Council and the CAO have also been directed to review a full list of 68 recommendations included in the municipal inspection report and by Oct. 1 address why action has not or will not be taken for any individual recommendation within open council.
City staff are ready to present all recommendations to council on Sept. 2, however given the number of recommendations that need to be reviewed and debated, councillors may have to utilize special public meetings to make the deadline.
City staff say they will divide the recommendations and address them in smaller groups to make progress more manageable, and council can then decide whether to proceed with the recommendation, make changes or explain why it will not be implemented.
Coun. Shila Sharps pointed out additional issues could arise with the absence of Coun. Ramona Robins, who has now left Medicine Hat to embark on a postponed travel and learning trip with her daughters.
In Alberta, a ministerial order is a directive issued by a minister under the authority of a statute or regulation.
