KANANASKIS COUNTRY – Kananaskis Improvement District (KID) council will meet twice per month beginning in 2024, once for regular meetings and once for new governance and priorities committee discussions.
The change scales back the number of regular council meetings, many of which haven’t been deemed required in 2023, in favour of more discourse among councillors and ratepayers before council business reaches the decision-making table.
“I think there’s an opportunity for somebody to hear the discussion and then engage potentially with their councillor, for example, or anybody else to make their views known and then that helps inform a decision, maybe,” said KID council chair Melanie Gnyp.
Council voted in favour of creating the committee at its last meeting. All councillors will sit on the committee and meetings will be in a public, non-decision-making format. Its purpose will be to serve as an advisory body to council and it will be chaired by the KID council chair.
Coun. Darren Robinson said he believes the committee will provide an important opportunity to ask questions that can go unanswered at council meetings.
“I’ve found myself in the early stages (of time on council), and still today, wanting and having questions that just don’t seem and feel right to ask during a council meeting that could perhaps get answered in that session,” he said.
KID administration looked to neighbouring municipalities like the MD of Bighorn, Rocky View County and others with similar committees, which have become standard across municipalities.
“The experience we have with all the information we’ve received from some of our colleagues in different municipalities is that it actually works for the benefit of council and council time,” said CAO Keiran Dowling.
“You have the opportunity to be a little more robust in your questioning; robust in your process in the governance and priorities committee meetings, but then not lose sight of what is any outcome from that and bring that to the council meeting that has resolutions and direction for administration.”
Any delegations would also be referred to governance and priorities meetings, scheduled to be held on the fourth Tuesday of each month, starting in January.
The meetings take the place of bi-weekly regular council meetings. One meeting each month has mostly been held on an as required basis throughout 2023, with eight of those having been cancelled so far this year.
Coun. Claude Faerden said he foresees council having more business in the future and questioned whether the two meetings will be enough.
“By and large I believe this is a really, really necessary committee we should have,” he said.
“I’m trying to understand if we will have enough time to do said business if we have one session per month that’s strictly informational and one that is for doing all the business.
“Will we have enough time to have all those debates in the governance and priorities committee meetings to make sure that all that business happens in the second meeting per month?”
Dowling noted council’s schedule is subject to change from what was proposed if required.
“The structure and when it occurs with the schedule, that is up to council and that can change later if needed,” he said.
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.
