Council updated by Minister on provincial review of city after resident petition

Mayor Patricia Matthews and city council received a letter Sept. 14, updating them on the review of administration and council conducted by Alberta Municipal affairs.
The review was conducted in response to a petition submitted by Chestermere resident Laurie Bold.
“We take every resident’s concerns seriously,” said Matthews.
In the letter, Minister of Municipal affairs Danielle Larivee stated that the city’s oversight of the utility rate setting process from 2013 to 2015 may have lacked appropriate rigour.
To address the concerns surrounding utility rates in Chestermere, the city hired Stack’d Consulting to review Chestermere Utilities Incorporated’s mandate and the city process for approving utility rates.
“The consultant is…going through a rigorous review of the CUI mandate and our regulatory process,” she said.
Matthews said that she and council are looking forward to the final report.
“It’s a very robust review,” she said, “we expect to have some good recommendations come out of it.”
“That will give us a clear path forward to a more robust regulatory review than the one we have in place currently,” said Matthews.
She said that the city is constantly looking for ways to improve.
“Anytime we get resident feedback, we take it seriously and we look for ways to improve on the processes we’ve got,” she said.
“There’s always room for improvement,” said Matthews.
By initiating the Stack’d Consulting review, Minister Larivee said in the letter that “Council and administration appear to be appropriately responding to the concern.”
Bold disagrees and doesn’t think it’s right for the city to be allowed to choose the consultant.
“They get to pick their own company to come in there?” said Bold, “maybe the people should get to vet somebody and choose somebody to go in there and check things out.”
Bold had hoped that the province would make a more aggressive move in response to the petition.
“It feels to me like a colossal waste of my time,” said Bold of the minister’s response to her petition.
“We’re asking for outside help, we’re not asking for the help to keep continuing from the mayor and the council,” said Bold.
Stack’d Consulting’s review will be presented to council in October. A copy of the report and council’s proposed response to it is to be sent to Minister Larivee by Nov. 30.
Once the minister has the final report from Stack’d she will review it to determine if further action, which could include an inspection, is necessary to address the concerns raised in the petition.