Riversdale Resources

Just received the following information regarding a Riversdale Resources open house.
For some reason I could not link the page so I copied and pasted the information.

Grassy Mountain Coal Project
Open House
Please join us from 5:30-7:30 on
Tuesday, October 15 at the
Crowsnest Sports Complex
to discuss the Grassy Mountain Project.
For details or inquiries, please contact
Morgan Tanner at 778-320-0409.

Let’s talk about the Mayor Forum and some class.

This afternoon I made a mistake at approximately 4pm I was send a link to a video on Youtube of a alleged conversation between our Mayor and his council. I posted that link probably a rash decision done in haste, at 6pm I checked that link again and there were further conversations posted about an alleged deal where a councilor had a invoice from the municipality that was written off. My response at this point was “holy shit” this is bad so I deleted the link.

Took my wife to the Mayor’s forum where she and I sat for two hours listened respectively to each person speak applauded and paid attention to where everybody stood on the issues. In the closing comments the Mayor decided that he was going to make an example of me. He choose to talk about the new lows of politics and invited everybody to check out Dean Ward’s blog and see the American style attack ad. Well I was a little shocked that a man who spent the better part of laughing his head of every time somebody said something contrary to his positions for three hours last night at the councilor’s forum, would slam somebody else about class.

I was especially upset when I saw Ed Strembicki stand up last night (actually somebody I have grown to  respect a lot over the last six months) and speak about how he did not appreciate the Mayor calling him a CAVER and a REDNECK, then I looked across the room and saw the Mayor hysterically laughing another a new low in politics. That’s class.

Let’s talk about the incumbent councilor, I have attended 95% of the council meeting in the last three years and watched this incumbent stick up his hand and usually start with. “Well all the questions I was going to ask have already been asked but I will ask something really insignificant to the conversation now”. At the same time watching some of the other councilor's smirk or roll their eyes. Suddenly he is standing up at the forums asking more questions than he as asked in the last three years. If you were that concerned about this community and that much in support of your "team" why are you not running? And yes Mr Rosner’s assessment of the way he worked the crowd was bang on.

Back to the start well if the man, that I watched attack the press in a bully type approach because they were not "accurately" reporting his council meetings then gave them no chance to respond. That attacked residents at public forums at the Elks Hall because they disagreed with his directions. That attacked anybody that disagreed with him in his newsletters with childish name calling, wants to talk about my level of class go ahead.
Then tonight he attacks and attempts to embarrass me in front of the most important person in my life go ahead. I hope you feel like a hero, but to you I say the people that matter will pass judgment on Oct 21^st. To the incumbent councilor you put up the good fight for your "team" but obviously you could no longer stand the heat in the kitchen.

P.S it was a neat trick to burn up my three questions quickly last night and then have one of your supporters attack me about a tax increase in 2008, (that I did not support) and leave me with no opportunity to respond.

To the residents of the Crowsnest Pass Thank you for your support.

Debbie and Dean    

Councilor Forum My Opening and Closing Statements

Below are my opening and closing statements from last night's forum, I also added in my closing statement (In response to a comment from an audience member) the fact that Council in 2008 may have passed a 12% tax increase which at that time I strongly spoke and voted against.

In response to numerous requests I am going to put my opinion poll back up on the Councilors 

Looking for comments regarding last night I will not post any derogatory or personal comments.

Opening Statement

My name is Dean Ward I have lived in the CNP for 30 years, I have a beautiful wife Debbie, raised three kids and have two grandchildren living here.

I have put myself forward as a candidate because I believe in this community and it’s people I wish to see it thrive, flourish and be affordable for all of us. Lets talk about a few issues.  

Taxes, and franchise fees are too high we cannot continue on the path we are on. We are told taxes are only going up 2.5% a year, yet we will pay $400,000 more in franchise fees this year than we did in 2010.

We are a very old community with a very limited tax base, we must increase our municipal revenue by growth not by additional taxation.

We must attract young families by keeping this community affordable.

At the same time we must honor the commitments we have made to our seniors, provide the $100,000 for upgrades at the lodge, and we must make sure the town rounder service is maintained. 

Our community would only have a fraction of what it does today, without the efforts of volunteers both, past, and present we must find more ways to recognize their efforts.

Our administration is too large and expensive, does anybody want to see it get larger? I don’t, we need to determine our priorities and reduce our costs.

Did we really need to spend $50,000 to buy the Best Western name? How much money have we spent on consultants, reports, logo’s, brands, entrance signs. We are not a wealthy community we can not afford to spend freely ever dollar counts.  

We should not need a consultant to tell us how bad the relationship between our municipal workforce and administration is, fixing this needs to be a priority.

Despite all of our concerns the CNP is still the greatest place in the world to live and I would be honored to serve this community for the next four year.  

Thanks for coming enjoy the rest of the evening I will have more comments later

Closing Statement

Moving forward over the next four years.

Change, it will happen, it is unavoidable but it must be change embraced and supported by the community. Your next council could have the greatest ideas in the world but they mean nothing if you the taxpayers feel they are being rammed down your throat. We all need to feel a part of change.

Communications, council needs to do a better job, town hall meetings need to be an opportunity for the public to be heard, council needs to be both available and approachable. Municipal Newsletters should not be an opportunity for the Mayor to call his opponents names, let us bring the respect back to the community starting with our leadership.

Municipal Affairs will not solve our problems they have made that very clear to us, we will live with the people we choose on Oct 21 for the next four years.

I would like to thank the Chamber for putting on the forum and the public for showing up to hear the candidates and for all the support I have received.

Finally, I will not make unrealistic promises, but I will promise you a hard working committed councilor who wants to move this town forward in a positive direction that is supported by the majority of the residents, we have to maintain the Crowsnest Pass as a place that is affordable for all of us. 

On October 21 I would greatly appreciate your vote Thank you.      

Crowsnest Pass Support a community idea?

Below is a link that was sent to me by one of my readers, please check it out and vote to support our community.


http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf17842

Getting down to the final strokes, Council Oct 1

My reflection of Tuesday night’s meeting and what jumped out:

Minutes of the previous council meeting Councilor Saje pointe out that the minutes failed to reflect some of the costs on the failed Medican deal. The $130 for advertising the open house in the papers, and the $500 spent on the PR consultant were not included.

CAO Report of Activities:

CAO will be bringing back to council soon Action/Timelines to respond to the Municipal Inspection.

There will be a meeting on Oct 23 to address the Workplace Assessment study.

The CLC demolition should be complete prior to the end of the month (I suspect by Oct 20^th)

Residents should be receiving the Recreation Surveys in the mail shortly.

Departments are preparing for the 2014 budget review.

Administration will be in contact with their municipal Insurance shortly to see how much rates will jump for next year.

12 members of the Fire Department passed their NFPA 1001 training.

CAO briefing meeting Councilor Saje questioned how you could have actions and timelines for meeting where no motions or directives can be given, the CAO responded that those were his own actions/timelines.

There were three calls made to various government agencies regarding the CLC site all were checked out, and found to have no validity to them.

Councilor Gail congratulated Fire Chief Munshaw on what a great job he has done.

Tender for winter sand was not filled by the successful bidder, sand will be delivered by another company falling within budget.

Investment Task Force Initiative;

The Economic Development and Tourism Board is putting in place a short term Task Force to investigate the possibility of finding Investments/Investors for the Best Western and Crowsnest Crossing site.

Human Resources Administrator Position:

On the Municipal Web site this position as been advertised and still is for at least a month  http://www.crowsnestpass.com/finance-a-administration/employment this was questioned at the previous council meeting as it was never approved by council. Administration felt that in light of all the labor relations problems they were having despite the position being vacant for 15 months it was now of a emergent nature to fill the position. They proposed to pay for it by using the wages saved from the Director of Protective services position not being filled until the end of the year. Then find the money for next year in the 2014 budget. We were also informed surprisingly that the position will become full time as of Jan 1. The question was asked by Councilor Saje why the job was advertised prior to being approved by council, the only answer he got was that was an error.

As this point Councilors Saje, Saindon, Gallant and Gail felt that it would be out of line for this council to fill this position this close to the election, felt that it should be left for next council. Councilor Saindon made very good arguments in regards to this issue that I felt were bang on. Council voted down administrations recommendation and suggested that they bring it back to the next council.

Comment: Council did not take a similar position (with the exception of Saindon and Saje) to spending an unbudgeted $600,000 just a few months prior to the election to demolish the centre.

Before any one jumps down my throat (I support the demolition) It should have been done either last year when it was budgeted, or early next year when it could have been built into the 2014 budget.

Crowsnest Pass Election Forums

Time and date have been set there will be two forums:

The first on Oct 9 will be at 7pm at the MDM for all the Councilor candidates.

The second will be on Oct 10 also at 7pm at the MDM for all the candidates for Mayor

Development In the Crowsnest Pass

My position on development in the Crowsnest Pass:

In the Crowsnest Pass it's not a surprise to most people we have a huge problem almost 90% of our tax base is residential. Our primary source of employment is the coal mines in the Elk Valley, our secondary sources of employment,  a few government jobs, and the retail and service sectors.

Do we need Development in the Crowsnest Pass? Beyond a shadow of doubt. 

With approximately 3200 homes in the Pass building 15-20 homes a year will take us close to 200 years just to maintain the number of homes we have today. The next council needs to sit down with residential developers and determine what we as a community can do to attract more building here. Off site levies need to be done away with completely not a one year freeze that is presently in place. We need to look at the fees we charge for people to build, are we in line with communities around us that are competing for the same home owners we are. We have to realize that if you attract people here to build they will pay taxes on that property for many years to come, they will put kids in our schools and spend their wages in our community.

Nobody wants another Bridgegate, Medican. What we need is more of the Ironstones, Southmores, Mohawk Meadows, and Timberlines. All of those developments were good for the Pass and will continue to help us to increase our tax base over the coming years.

Commercial development, we are in desperate need of it commercial development not only creates employment through the building stage, but then it creates long term employment for as long as the business is in existence. Let's not forget one commercial business will pay the equivalent taxes of many homes.

So to be clear again Dean Ward as been and will be pro-development, my wish is to see us grow at a much greater rate than we presently are.

If elected I will propose to the rest of Council that we sit down with all the developers and builders in the Crowsnest Pass, find out what the issues are and determine where the municipality can help.