Municipality of Crowsnest Pass press release Feb 25/2014

Your Municipal Council would like to provide an update to the taxpayers of the Crowsnest Pass on the numerous challenges that we have encountered since being elected four months ago.

Between Oct. 21, 2013 through to the end of April 2014, our entire team of senior management (including CAO and all of the department heads) will be replaced. This has created numerous difficulties and challenges, but thanks to the tremendous efforts of all of our employees, we will move forward, it will just take longer than normal for some tasks to be completed, such as the budget.

Your present council has received a lot of criticism over a couple of issues including the entrance signs and the Crowsnest Centre site. During our short tenure on council we have inherited contractual agreements made by the previous administration that committed the community to these projects financially. Contractors were also permitted significant time delays and there will be an additional cost accrued of $55,000 that we have no option other than to pay.

You will have noticed that council has conducted a lot of business “In Camera”. This is a legal requirement in the Municipal Government Act of Alberta for issues that fall under the categories of “Land, Legal or Labour”.
Unfortunately, there were numerous issues left to this council that fall under these three categories that have required a lot of time, effort and energy on the part of both administration and council.

Land:
Crowsnest Mountain Resort
Crowsnest Centre Site
River Run
Sentinel property

Legal:
Chinook Pipeline
Blairmore Smoke Eaters

Labour:
CUPE 812-15-20 outstanding grievances

We are presently waiting for our 2013 financial year end to be completed and will be starting the budget process on Feb. 27. We are anticipating that the budget may create some additional challenges, which may require us to make some very difficult choices.

We, as your elected officials, do not wish to paint a negative picture of this community that has so much to offer, however, in the interest of transparency we wanted to fully inform the public of the issues that we have faced since the beginning of our term. We all understand that the issues listed above will take time to resolve, and would like to assure you that we are committed to resolving these issues and we continue to feel very optimistic about moving our community forward.

Thank you for your patience.
Crowsnest Pass Municipal Council