Latest news with #MunicipalGovernanceAct
CTV News
23-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
70 recommendations made in Medicine Hat inspection
A municipal inspection of Medicine Hat has been completed, resulting in dozens of recommendations. The city asked for the inspection in September 2024 after months of disagreements between the mayor, council and chief administrator. It was then ordered by the minister of Alberta Municipal Affairs. The final 207-page report was presented during a council meeting on Monday. 'The bottom line seems to be that the decision was that they contravene the Municipal Governance Act, and as a result, they have to have some consequences for that,' said Jim Groom, a political scientist based in Medicine Hat. Along with 70 recommendations, the report also included three directives from the minister of municipal affairs that must be followed. These include council and the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) reviewing the recommendations and reporting to the minister, as well as making the report publicly available. Council, the CAO and other designated officers must also complete respectful workplace training. 'There's less than 100 days left in this council, and I would not expect this to make any drastic changes in any way, shape or form, and it was evident by the council meeting last night that there's still a lot of animosity, still a lot of personality clashes,' said Groom. The report says council has been operating in a somewhat hostile environment since early on in its terms. That was highlighted by an exchange between Mayor Linnsie Clark and the city manager Ann Mitchell that led to council moving to sanction the mayor and cut her pay in half. A Calgary judge later reversed that decision. Council and others in city hall are working to repair those relationships. 'There's still some ambiguity about how do we get to the to the right area of correcting this? Whose fault it is isn't the right thing, but what was the precipice? How do we get past that? What's the crux?' said Medicine Hat city councillor Shila Sharps. The report says the residents of Medicine Hat did not lose out on programs or services because of council infighting, but it also called governance function of the city ineffective and noted that distrust made it difficult to make effective decisions. A new council will be elected this fall, and the hope is to start the new term on the right foot. 'We are making sure that we have a very robust orientation for the new council coming in in October,' said Mitchell. 'I've been a city manager for 20 years, so I've gone through a few orientations and so has our clerk, so knowing best practices is really important.' CTV news reached out to Clark and will update this article if and when a response is received. The full report can be read on the City of Medicine Hat's website.
CBC
12-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
New Camrose high school ready to go — but no road leads to it
Social Sharing Construction on a new high school in the central Alberta city of Camrose has finished well ahead of its planned September opening, but an unresolved dispute has left the building without utilities and paved access. Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic High School, designed to serve 400 to 600 students in grades 9-12, is part of the Elk Island Catholic Schools Division. The province has spent nearly $30 million to build the school in the city of 20,000, about 95 kilometres southeast of Edmonton. The building is complete, with sidewalks, flag poles and a parking lot, but it lacks running water, electricity and paved access roads. Davin Wilcox has two children who are supposed to start at Blessed Carlo Acutis in the fall, but worries it might not be possible for the building to open on schedule. "This issue is near and dear to my heart ... I'm a big proponent of Catholic education," Wilcox said. "This really made me upset." In a message to parents last month, Elk Island Catholic Schools' superintendent Paul Corrigan said he was "deeply concerned that key issues regarding critical municipal infrastructure to service the school remain unresolved, which could impact the school's opening timeline." Corrigan said an "impasse" between the city and the developer is preventing the school district from taking possession of the building. Camgill Development Corporation and the City of Camrose have not reached an agreement on who is responsible for providing these services for the school. Camrose city council held a meeting behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss the issue. In a statement to CBC after that meeting, Mayor PJ Stasko said he authorized another proposal to the province and the Elk Island Catholic board of trustees in hopes that "all parties can come to an agreement." Camgill Development Corporation did not respond to CBC's request for a statement. A statement from the office of Infrastructure Minister Martin Long said the province can't hand over the school to Elk Island Catholic to prepare it for opening until the city and the developer have reached an agreement. "Under the Municipal Governance Act, the city owns the utilities and roads running to the school site and it is their responsibility to fulfil the utility and road access requirements for this project," the statement said. The province said the remaining work can be completed in about three months, meaning that if an agreement can be reached, the school could open on schedule in September. Communication inadequate, parent says Wilcox said that while the school was being built, communication from the school board, the developers and the city had been positive and consistent. But things started to change at the end of 2024, when parents started to wonder why there were no paved roads being built, he said. "The carrot has been dangled in front of you for a year … and now things start to get quiet, things start to get weird," he said. "Why is the school not open? Why are the teachers not allowed to go in there and start setting up their classrooms? Why isn't there an approach to the parking lot?" The message from Corrigan doesn't give parents enough information about where their kids will go to school in the fall, he added. Many of the students who are supposed to start at the new high school in the fall are currently at Our Lady of Mount Pleasant, a Camrose school for learners in grades 5-12. "There's been no statements, there's been no progress reports, there's been no timeline," Wilcox told CBC's Edmonton AM on Wednesday. "The window to start digging and re-servicing the school … all that time is disappearing." LISTEN | Parent wonders if school will open on schedule: Why Camrose parents feel caught in the middle of a new school dispute 13 hours ago Duration 1:16 A new Catholic high school is set to open in Camrose, Alta., in the fall, but it still doesn't have paved access or utilities hooked up. As Travis McEwan reports, some parents are worried a dispute between the developer and the city might delay the opening. A principal and vice-principal have been appointed to the new school, but staff and teachers have yet to be hired, according to Corrigan. Wilcox is concerned that by the time new teachers are hired, they won't have the resources to prepare for what comes next. "You're really jamming up the teachers," he said. "Teachers can't get into the classrooms, they can't get their stuff ready."
