By Steve Hubrecht
The winning candidates from September’s byelection in Canal Flats were sworn in as new councillors during last week’s council meeting.
The byelection generated considerable interest and high voter turnout, driven in part by perceptions of lack of transparency and an alleged conflict of interest involving the village’s chief administrative officer and companies owned by the CAO’s son (including one involved in the village’s planned affordable housing-medical technology hub project); as well as by upgrades to the village’s water system.
Byelection winners Andrew Weitzel and Paul Marcil (who had previously served two terms as a councillor from 2011 to 2019) both spoke to these topics during the campaign, but after the byelection both made clear they planned to dig into the facts first, and both said they would attempt to keep the village moving forward in a positive way.
Those comments spoke to some of the rancour of the byelection. Indeed in the last village newsletter prior to voting day, candidate Denise Trepanier expressed her despair at the negativity. “Our town is being divided, families are fighting against each other, longtime friendships are being destroyed, harsh words are being said, accusations and bitterness,” she wrote.
Given the strong civic interest and the divisive byelection, some may have expected fireworks at the first council meeting with the two new councillors aboard, but Marcil and Weitzel were true to their word about keeping things positive. They were also true to their word about wanting to get to the facts beneath some of the rumours, as collectively they asked nearly two dozen questions during the Tuesday, Oct. 15 meeting.
Andrew Weitzel gave Canal Flats council lots to think about last week.
PHOTO SYD DANIS
Weitzel asked several in a row (and Marcil asked some) on the village’s application to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s housing accelerator fund. Most were about details of the funding and other housing incentives, which were ably answered by Canal Flats mayor Mark Doherty and village corporate officer Sylvie Hoobanoff.
At one point Marcil asked about the Canal Flats Attainable Housing and Childcare Society.
During the byelection, some residents had voiced concern about the village not having control over decisions made by the society or enough ownership over projects the society is involved in. Conversely other residents had expressed worry that the village is in fact too involved, with village staff in key spots on the society’s board of directors.
Doherty replied to Marcil, explaining that the housing society reports back to the village, with a report to council required for each project.
Weitzel then asked about freedom of information requests made to the village, relating to the society. Doherty noted that would need to be discussed in camera, and asked if Weitzel wanted to do so. Weitzel was happy to instead wait until the end of the council meeting, when an in-camera meeting was already scheduled.
He also suggested postponing the appointment of new Canal Flats chief financial officer Annette Robinson until some time after the in-camera meeting, which other councillors agreed to do.
Marcil and Weitzel also asked questions about the dike improvement project.
Hoobanoff explained that the project was sparked by a flood plain assessment done by the village several years ago, which recommended upgrading the dike to be able to handle a one-in-200 year flood.
The village applied for and received a grant for the work, but in the ensuing years inflation has pushed up construction costs significantly, meaning the grant is no longer enough.
