The Rocky Mountain Outlook sat down with all three candidates for mayor and put a series of question to each – these are their responses.
Council passed a motion last fall that dedicates a building and proposes $50,000 in the budget for a committee to be established to explore the establishment of a non-profit group with an independent volunteer board to run an arts centre and oversee the planning and development of the facility.
Would you support an arts development centre project if it requires taxpayer dollars to subsidize its operations?
John Borrowman said he is very supportive of the arts centre proposal, one that he originally put before council, but added it is not a blank cheque.
“I honestly believe an arts centre such as what we are proposing has the potential to be more cost neutral than many of our other facilities,” said Borrowman, adding pools, rinks and climbing gym all require some level of subsidization. “With an arts centre like the one being examined, a break even is a realistic goal.
“One of the reasons the arts centre is proposed to be operated by a non-profit is for the simple reason that non-profits have available a number grants and corporate funding options a municipality or corporation would not.”
He said he supports subsidizing recreation and will examine the pro forma budget brought forward by the advisory committee council formed, “and if it is not going to be a significant subsidization, I’m supportive of taxpayer support.”
Pam Histad said she wants an art centre to be self-sustaining and taxpayer subsidization will depend on what the costs are.
“I have no problem allocating that building for that purpose, but it has to be paid for,” she said, adding she likes the concept and what it adds to the downtown core for residents and tourism.
Hilstad said the community is concerned about taxes going up and she is hearing from people who are unhappy about it. With that in mind, she said town council must be prudent and careful of how it allocates tax funds.
Ed Russell said an arts development centre needs to be afforded the same consideration for subsidization as other sports facilities.
“There has to be a user pay component or I could never support it,” he added. “If there is a degree of subsidization required, as long as it is appropriate, we will have to sell it to the taxpayers.”
Russell pointed out the municipality is still paying a mortgage on the building (the former library and liquor store). The municipality still owes $1.4 million on the building, which it purchased from the provincial government when it divested from selling alcohol and sold liquor store properties in 1993. The annual payment amounts to $136,213, or $11,000 a month.
However, the land the building sits on is part of a larger parcel of municipal property that has significant development potential and real estate value in the long term.
Hilstad said any user group that enters into an agreement with the town to lease a facility like that must understand if future needs change, flexibility will be needed.
“There would have to be an understanding with the arts community that should we need to develop that area in the future, it may not always be there for them,” she said, adding that could be over 20 years from now. “It is part of the civic corridor and prime real estate and we have to have the ability to develop that.”
Russell said a lease with the arts centre may reflect the fact that in the long-term, the municipality has the ability to develop that area.
“Any development of an arts centre would have to take into account that, as part of the downtown corridor, it may need to be vacated,” he said.
Russell said the longevity of the proposal still has to be investigated and pointed out that the Canmore Community Cooperative project, which is similar to the arts centre, had a very short lifespan.
Borrowman said he likes the idea of the civic corridor as providing a number of services by the municipality.
He said it is about a vision for the future and building a balanced community and if the council starts selling off assets like that property it is short sighted. To knock it down, sell it or leave it vacant, he said, doesn’t show leadership or vision.
“We have a strong and dedicated arts community that is a big part of Canmore and there have been efforts for 25 years or so to have an arts centre created,” he said. “Here we have a building that we own that is going to be vacant in a few months and the question is what is the best thing to do with that.”
What leadership will you take if elected mayor on the issue of completing the final wildlife corridor at the east end of the Three Sisters Mountain Village lands, which have been in receivership for the past three years?
Russell pointed out that ultimately, it is the province that will decide the alignment of that corridor before any more planning approvals can be granted to the developer.
“There are alignments up there I think will work, but ultimately, it is up to the province,” he said. “As mayor I will reflect the feelings of council and the community.”
Borrowman, if elected, said one of the first things he will do is meet with the receivers of that land to talk about ways of opening up channels of communication with the Town as nothing much has happened in three years.
He added while ultimately the final decision is up to the province, he would like Canmore to be at the table as part of the resolution.
But, he said, as mayor he would speak as the voice of the community to ensure those involved understand residents of Canmore expect that solution to uphold the best science available for establishing a functional corridor.
“In the last 20 years we have developed most of the science here in the valley,” he said.
Hilstad said in all things she is committed to working with stakeholders and other levels of government like the Province.
“I am very much about working collaboratively and cooperatively with other levels of government,” she said. “It is in all our interests to see that solved so that land can be developable sometime in the future once the economy turns around.”
What efforts will you take into the future if elected mayor to ensure the split between commercial and residential millrates is fair and does not harm local business?
Borrowman said he is committed to establishing a task force similar to the one that looked at the Sustainability Screening Report to look at this issue.
“With some of the presentations that have been brought forward by BOWDA, in terms of the impact of the last several years of that practice, I see that the split in the actual tax dollars being collected and the difference between residential and commercial is wide and getting wider,” he said. “It is a really valuable exercise for us to get into looking at the differential in the millrates and if I am the mayor I have commited to starting the process by encouraging council to create a task force or committee.”
However, he added, as a business owner himself, it is important to remember paying commercial taxes is a business expense, whereas paying residential taxes is not.
Hilstad said first and foremost council needs to start focusing on diversifying the local economy.
She pointed out tourism for many years was on the backburner to development. With that industry having slowed, Hilstad said tourism needs to be in the forefront as part of that, including finding a sustainable financial model for it.
Diversifying the economy and attracting business, she said, will increase the commercial tax base and create less of a burden on current taxpayers.
Russell said the municipality and town council in particular needs to put effort into becoming more business-friendly and minimize the burdens on business by maximizing how every tax dollar is spent.
“Currently, everybody in this town has financial burdens and we as a municipal government have to step up,” he said.
Will you commit to making the new chief administrative officer’s contract public?
Histad said she thinks transparency is important for council and if there are no privacy laws prohibiting that contract being made public, she would like to see that happen.
“As long as there are no privacy issues, I do not have a problem,” she said.
“The hefty severance packages we have paid out to the last two CAOs needs to stop,” she added.
Russell said as well if there is no legal prohibition from making that public, he supports doing so.
“In the past the CAO contracts have not been well handled,” he said. “We have to rewrite the book and if we lose a candidate, maybe they aren’t the right person.”
He said going through the process of recruiting a new CAO is also an opportunity for a renewal of roles for council as a team, communication and philosophy of the municipal government.
Borrowman said the contract is, in fact, a public document and he wants it to be public.
“After all, we have been through this, let’s put it on the website and anybody can look at it at any time”
Do you think the job of mayor is full- or part-time and what compensation should it include?
Russell said in 2007 he voted against then Mayor Ron Casey’s pay raise and he does not feel the process was done the right way.
That being said, he does feel the job is, in fact, full-time and regardless of what other communities do, Canmore needs a local solution.
“Whether the wage is right, I don’t know, because I have never been mayor, but I will be grateful for a fair wage if I get to sit in that positon,” he said.
Russell argued there is no job descriptiuon or paramaters for mayor and if elected he will introduce some level of accountability into that sitation as well as establish regular office hours.
Borrowman said there are two distinct parts of the issue; the first being whether or not the job is full-time and once that is determined, what is a fair wage.
He said he is prepared to undergo an analysis of the position, track all the hours being worked and after that, review the mayor’s and council salaries as a result. “After a lot of thinking and talking to other people, I have always been convinced it is a full-time job and I think the challenge will be as mayor to work less than 50 hours a week,” he said. “What I am prepared to do as a mayor is track my time down to the minute if necessary and build a time log and at the end of a year convene the budget committee and go through what the mayor has done for a year.
“Then we can discuss proper compensation.”
Histad said whether the job is full-time or part-time, she is happy to do it.
If it changes in the future to a part-time job, she said, she would like to see it include a base salary with per diems.
“I have pushed for a job description for the mayor in the past so people know what we are paying for,” she said.
If elected mayor, what solutions would you pursue for the current issue of biosolids, as Canmore spends $400,000 a year shipping its sewage sludge hundreds of kilometres to be composted?
Borrowman said there are several possible solutions to the biosolids issue that Canmore can pursue.
Canmore has investigated an energy from waste solution that would be located here in the valley and he said that is where he thinks the community should be heading.
“That is where we think we should be going, dealing with our biosolids and our waste locally and not continuing to think we can truck it out of the valley for eternity,” he said, adding all discusions should include regional partners through the Bow Valley Waste Management Commission.
Hilstad said there are fiscal, environmental and social concerns to be considered for any possible solution to this issue.
“I am open to other regional efforts and solutions, but they should be cost effective and environmentally effective,” she said, adding she would like to see more research done and evaluated by council.
Russell pointed to the current proposal being considered by Banff and N-Viro, a company that uses biosolids to create a marketable fertilizer product as a possibility.
That option, he said, would require Canmore to work with Banff and is seprate from the energy from waste solution evaluated by administration and presented to council this year.
As well, through the waste commission there is also the Southern Alberta Energy from Waste Alliance that would be situated in Vulcan and could take advantage of a railway as a means of transportation that would include commercial and residential garbage as well as bioloids.
