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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990-02-09 Council MinutesAGENDA FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS COMBINED MEETING FRIDAY, FEBURARY 9TH, 1990 1 Call to Order I 2 Welcome by Reeve Hoff 3. Introduction of Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly Gary Severtson M.L.A. Innisfail Constituency sends his regrets 4 Possible Items for Discussion FCSS - Community Resource counsellor Program Drumheller Health Unit - Homemaker Program Proposed New Ambulance Act & Concern about costs due to need of having EMT or Pari - Medics on staff Is there an on -going trend on the part of the Province to transfer more and more responsibility to Local Governments? Example - Will Local Governments be responsible for ' Building Inspections in future Concerns about GST 5. Date for Next Meeting 6 Adjournment ! LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS COMBINED MEETING FEBRUARY 9TH 1990 A meeting of the Local Government Officials was held in the M D of Kneehill Office, Three Hills Alberta on Friday February 9th , 1990 The following were present for the meeting Arnold Malone, M.P. Louise Feltham, M P (after 2 00 P M) Mrs Connie Osterman, M L A Stan Schumacher, M L.A. M D of Kneehill Reeve Otto Hoff, Councillors Code, Boake, Marz, Mueller, Vickery and Hogg J C Jeffery, Administrator Mrs Jean Wilkinson, Assistant Administrator City of Drumheller Mayor Jim Fisher Ray Romenetz Administrator Town of Three Hills Councillor Brenda Dormer Brian Torpy, Administrator Town of Trochu Mayor Al Gehring, Councillor Peter Verhesen Village of Linden Mayor Joyce McDonald Councillors Moon and Dyck Ross Dean, Administrator Vi l l age of Acme Councillor Ed Heck Village of Carbon Councillors Fox and Ohlhauser Three Hills School Division Chairperson Maureen Kubenic Trustee Price Trustee Bigelow (after 3 00 P M ) Drumheller Hospital Jim Ramsbottom, Administrator Trochu Hospital Peter Verhesen, Administrator ` Elnora Hospital Pat Matthews, Administrator Three Hills Hospital Board Member Pauls Brian L Sather, Administrator Drumheller Health Unit Bonnie McMillan, Administrator Reeve Hoff called the meeting to order and welcomed Mr. Malone, Member of Parliament and Mrs. Osterman and Mr Schumacher, Members of Legislature to the meeting There was discussion about the FCSS Community Resource worker program being operated by the M D of Kneehill and the six towns and villages 1 LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS COMBINED MEETING FEBRUARY 9TH, 1990 Comments made by Acme, Linden Trochu, Three Hills and the Three HIlls School Division indicated the program is helpful to the poll people and students of the area There was discussion about how the success of the program could be better evaluated as there are some concerns being expressed and councillors must be in a position to account to their ratepayers for the money being expended to operate the program Due to the confidentially of the work done by the resource workers the only evaluation is coming from feedback from the school teachers Mrs Kubenic indicated the school division is very happy because having the workers available has taken a heavy burden off the teachers who are not trained to counsel students or parents with family problems It appears the program is aiming at a preventative type program rather than crisis counselling Mrs McMillan suggested the Steering Committee might contact Mental Health for assistance in drafting an evaluation questionnaire There was discussion about whether the counsellors, because of the confidential nature of their work and not being able to discuss a student's problem with the parents, unless the student would allow it, might be undermining the standards and rules set by the parents The following points were noted a self evaluation of the program is not a true picture. as more people are getting involved in the program parents as well as children will make use of the counsellors children must have some professional person to go to to discuss their problems if they cannot discuss them with their parents. would hope the counsellors would work with the parents as well as with the children must ensure the counsellors hired for the program are very competent Steering committee should develop a policy statement for the counsellors to work from having only three counsellors to cover the entire area is not sufficient resource workers are working in the community as well as the schools and are able to direct people to other help which is available if they are unable to assist with the problem must do an annual review of the program to ensure the counsellors are meeting the needs of the community resource worker in Trochu previously had an office in the Trochu School but is now also working out of the Town Office and it appears more adults are making use of her services Mrs Louise Feltham M P entered the meeting at this time and was welcomed by Reeve Hoff. The Homemaker Program operated by the Drumheller Health Unit was discussed in some detail Mrs McMillan noted the demand for the service exceeds the supply did receive more funding from the Province but had to cut back the program again because it was in a deficit position Usually have a case load of about 381 people was up to 430 before but now try to stay at 380 to 400 a person likely has to be over 75 years of age or severely disabled in order to get assistance under the program high ratio of people over 75 in this area and as well a fairly high number of people over 65 and less young people so it would appear the young people are leaving the area have people doing light housekeeping on a weekly basis but no 2 - -• —m* AW W.r-3mi P LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS COMBINED MEETING FEBRUARY 9TH 1990 heavy housecleaning cut out meals on wheels some time ago There was discussion with Mrs Osterman with regard to the funding for the Homemaker program There was discussion regarding the Proposed Ambulance Act and the requirement if the act is passed to provide a Basic Life Support Service which means a service must at least have E M T -A on staff It was noted there have been a number of amendments proposed to the act Mr Schumacher indicated the recommendations to the Province by his committee was that every Albertan should have access to an ambulance service with EMT -A technicans Mr Ramsbottom noted the act does not address transfer of out patients, costs of in- patient transfer as it affects hospital budgets, and it does not address STARS which is very very expensive, and he wondered if the Province and the people can afford to pay for provision of this kind of a service There was discussion about the costs which will be incurred by services which are staffed by volunteers and the problems which will be incurred by the Town of Three Hills and the Kneehill Ambulance Service because of this requirement There was discussion with Mrs Osterman and Mr Schumacher with regard to apparent trend of the Province to transfer more and more responsibility for various types of services to the local governments and whether this trend will continue There was also discussion about the need for the Province to cut down the paper flow i.e. the massive number of glossy booklets brochures (which are very expensive) and letters which come from the Province and in many cases do not even get read There was also discussion about the cost of setting up Family Day as another statutory holiday It was suggested local governments or groups are likely able to undertake necessary studies in order to get Provincial funding at the local level at a much less cost than that spent by the Province to undertake the study, and the study in most cases would be more relevant to the issue There was concern expressed that regulations such as building inspections, gas inspections, plumbing, etc as well as bridge inspections should not be handled at a local level as there might be inconsistency in application of the rules It would be hard for someone living in the community to shut down a business or stop construction of a home, etc Feel this should be handled at the provincial level. There was discussion about the GST and the concerns about levying such a tax. Mr. Ramsbottom noted everyone appears to to date have not seen any of our Alberta up in the House of Commons and saying Al tax Mr Malone spoke at length about GST and Sale Tax is wrong, is a very complicated changed be against the tax, but representatives standing berta is against this noted the Manufactures system and must be GST has two principles 1 to remove a tax which is a cost of doing business 2. adds element of choice as to how and when you pay the new tax Lark Bigelow entered the meeting at this time 3 LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS COMBINED MEETING FEBRUARY 9TH. 1990 Mr Malone noted the Federal Government gets about $18 Billion presently from the sale tax and these dollars must be replaced by some other form of tax Mrs Louise Feltham gave a slide presentation on the G S T, government spending the existing federal government debt and how same is being reduced by the Government It was suggested The Federal Government should provide leadership to the people by showing more restraint (i e by the Members of Parliament and their staff) If the tax is implemented the Government must ensure Health Units are exempt from the tax as well as schools Despite getting rebates of some of the tax it will cause increased paper flow, reduce cash flow and many many problems for people, businesses and government agencies etc and people cannot handle this tax. concern there is no cap on the amount of the tax, it could go up every year tax on goods may be all right but the tax on service is not good and appears to be a form of double taxation if the tax is implemented the Federal Government must ensure funds for education are not diminshed and money is not used to pay for the administration work - schools must be exempt from the tax if it is implemented. concern about reduced cash flow for everyone should look at how the tax would affect everyone - all groups - not just a business the administration work required to keep track of the GST may result in some administrations having to purchase more computers and hire more staff tax could create major problems for small businesses and people Mrs Kubenic expressed to the Province on behalf of the Three HIlls School Division their concerns about the distance learning project and line costs which are being incurred Also expressed concern that they are unable to do any long range capital planning as each year they do not know what their funding from the Province will be It was noted this is a good meeting and very helpful A vote of thanks was exstended to the Members of Parliament and the Members of the Legislative Assembly Mrs Osterman noted the Province has designated the Big Horn Sheep as the Provincial Animal and presented those present with a pin Date for Next Year's Meeting The meeting then adjourned. - Friday, February 8th 1991 ----------------- - - - - -- Mrs. Jean Wilkinson, Assistant Administrator Time 4 30 P.M 4