BANFF – Local politicians are floating an idea to take a taxpayer-funded trip to a similar resort community in a bid to help the national park townsite deal with challenges such as housing and transit.
Councillor Grant Canning pitched the idea to forgo spending money for council to attend conferences for Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) and Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) for one year.
Instead, he said council could spend the roughly $25,000 set aside each year, which includes funds for those conferences, for a tourism-focused familiarization trip to another tourist town in western Canada or the United States.
“This is not an additional expense, but a reallocation of those budget line items,” he said, suggesting face-to-face meetings could be set up to discuss similar challenges facing resort communities such as transit, housing, land use and waste diversion.
“I do see a benefit and value in FCM and AUMA, but I think in this particular case it might be worthwhile forgoing them for one year and looking at something more specific to us right here.”
Public perception of such a trip is also on council’s radar.
Councillor Corrie DiManno said she’s open to considering something like this, but there would need to be crystal clear communication to the public about the reasons behind it.
“There needs to be a really clear agenda and communication on why we’re going and what we’re doing when we’re there,” she said.
Mayor Karen Sorensen said she is not prepared to make any decision at this time.
“My suggestion is we have the discussion on the possibility in 2019 and then a decision for 2020 as to whether we reallocate those funds,” she said.
