The Village of Morrin has its work cut out for itself in order to get in legislative compliance with the requirements of the Alberta Government’s Municipal Government Act.
Earlier this year Morrin council made a motion to order a municipal inspection of its operations. While that motion is still on the books, Mayor Howard Helton said they have received an accountability review from Municipal Affairs, and hope this will allow them to rectify issues. The Municipal Accountability Program Is a new program where municipalities under 5,000 will have the opportunity to work with Municipal Affairs to identify areas where municipalities are meeting its legislative requirements and identify areas in need of attention.
“It is an inexpensive way of trying to deal with some of the issues instead of a full-blown inspection, that was kind of the Minister’s purpose in directing this (review),” said Mayor Helton.
Representatives of Municipal Affairs were at the Village of Morrin in August to complete the inspection. Morrin received the report on October 18, and it was addressed at its council meeting on November 21.
There were a number of positive findings with the review and areas the village was meeting its requirements, including establishing a municipal office, orientation training, signing of municipal documents, the ability to pass, revise and amend bylaws, public participation policy, tax roll, subdivisions, and development authorities, and holding elections.
A number of areas they will be working on includes establishing the position of CAO and completing a CAO evaluation, voting, closed meeting procedures, code of conduct, bylaws in areas of property tax, Assessment Review Board, bylaw enforcement, procedures bylaw. They are also required to come into compliance with its capital and operating budgets, municipal accounts, audited financial statements, salaries, and benefits, maintaining a tax arrears list and organizing tax sales and establishing a Subdivision Appeal Board, and a municipal emergency organization is needed.
Helton said many things on the list are already completed, they just have to demonstrate and use them.
He said Ministry staff have offered support and to help the municipality remedy some of these gaps in legislative compliance, and council will be updated as progress continues.
Morrin council is tasked with preparing a response to the review. It is to be completed with a plan of action and steps to be taken to rectify the issues. This response is to be submitted within eight weeks.
The response must include a timeline of completion of tasks which is not to exceed one year.