Mayoral Report: October - November

Here is my report for October and November.

Date	Activity	Purpose/Outcome	Follow Up	Policy Number	Expense
10/24	Mayor’s Hours	·      Met with residents, admin tasks, stakeholders, etc	·      Brought concerns to Admin/Council	·      GP.2.; GP.7.	$000
10/27	RM Kindersley Reeve Meeting	·      Prepare Joint Council Meeting	·      Joint Council Meeting	·      GP.4.	$000
10/27	Media Interview	·      Shooting the Breeze	·      Ongoing	·      GP.4.	$000
10/27	Pre-Council Meeting	·      Prep for Council Meeting	·      Council	·      GP.2.; GP.7	$000
10/27	Council Meeting	·      Public Meeting	·      Refer to minutes	·      GP.0.; GP.1.	$000
10/28	KHS NA Steering Committee Meeting	·      Health	·      Ongoing	·      GP.4.	$000
10/28	HR Meeting	·      Evaluation	·      Ongoing	·      GP.2.	$000
10/28	Media Interview	·      JAMAC	·      Landfill	·      GP.4.
10/29	SUMA: City Mayors Caucus	·      Urban Issues	·      Ongoing	·      GP.4.	$70.53
10/29	MLA Bill Boyd Meeting	·      Discuss local issues	·      Ongoing	·      GP.4.	~$281.22
10/30	SUMA: City Mayors Caucus	·      Urban Issues	·      Ongoing	·      GP.4.	$000
10/31	SUMA: City Mayors Caucus	·      Urban Issues	·      Ongoing	·      GP.4.	$000
11/3	Waste & Recycling RFP Interview	·      Decide RFP	·      Award contract	·      GP.2.; GP.7	$000
11/3	Waste & Recycling RFP Interview	·      Decide RFP	·      Award contract	·      GP.2.; GP.7	$000
11/3	Economic Development Meeting	·      Sustainable development	·      Ongoing	·      GP.2.; GP.7	$000
11/4	Kindersley Visually Impaired	·      Hear concerns, share Town issues	·      Ongoing	·      GP.2.; GP.7	$000
11/4	Special Meeting of Council	·      Revise bylaw	·      Approve bylaw	·      GP.0.; GP.1.	$000
11/4	Economic Development Meeting	·      Sustainable development	·      Ongoing	·      GP.2.; GP.7.	$000
11/4	Joint Meeting of RM Kindersley & Town	·      Discuss issues of mutual concern	·      Ongoing	·      GP.4.	$000
11/10	Council Meeting	·      Public Meeting	·      Refer to minutes	·      GP.0.; GP.1.	$000
11/13	Kindersley Chamber of Commerce Luncheon	·      Embridge Presentation	·      Awareness	·      GP.7.	$20
11/13	CAO Meeting	·      Update	·      Ongoing	·      GP.2.;	$000
11/13	HR Meeting	·      Review	·      Ongoing	·      GP.2.;	$000
11/14	Mayor’s Hours	·      Met with residents, admin tasks, stakeholders, etc	·      Brought concerns to Admin/Council	·      GP.2.; GP.7.	$000
11/17	Media Interview	·      Shooting the Breeze	·      Ongoing	·      GP.4.	$000
11/17	Fire Chief Meeting	·      Update	·      Ongoing	·      GP.4.; GP.7.	$36.06
11/17	Mayor’s Hours	·      Met with residents, admin tasks, stakeholders, etc	·      Brought concerns to Admin/Council	·      GP.2.; GP.7.	$000
11/17	Media Interview	·      Calgary Herald	·      Local economic activity and impact on Town	·      GP.4.	$000
11/17	Legal Meeting	·      Risk Awareness	·      Ongoing	·      GP.4	$000
11/18	Regional Waste Management Information Session	·      Information Sharing	·      Share with Council	·      GP.8.	$105
Total Expenses					$512.81

Trash Talk Municipal Style

Yesterday Councillor Shaun Henry and I attended an information session on regional waste management and recycling. Here are the highlights.

Regional Waste Management, Transfer Stations, & Landfill Information Session

SEIMA: WDM North Battleford

November 18, 2014

·         Trying to take a holistic approach with waste and recycling

·         Want to see communities collaborating with communities

·         Risk

·         Environmental impacts

·         Health impacts

·         Long term liability

·         Bottom line

·         Landfills have requirements to follow

·         Waste is not free to dispose of

·         Landfills can run to make a profit

·         New legislation is about a cultural shift

·         Money

·         New accounting standards effective 2015 (PS 3260)

Regional Waste Management, Recycling, and Landfill Information Session. November 18, 2014

Environmental Code

·         Enforced in stages

·         Landfill and Transfer Stations are included in the 1^st edition

·         Some landfill aspects will be included

·         Regulation through

·         A variety of acts EMPA

·         Municipal Refuse and Management Regulations 1986 doesn’t need financial assurance and is municipally owned

·         IEW and HSWDG about burning and hazardous goods

·         What about How?

·         MRMR is not prescriptive

·         The code can be adjusted every 6 months

·         Acceptable solution and alternative solution

Compliance Audit Program

·         4 landfills were audited this year

·         Audit vs inspection

·         Audit: systematic, independent and documented process to determine state of landfill

·         Inspection: a point of time verifying compliance with regulations

·         4 types of audit findings

·         Positive finding

·         Easily corrected

·         Non-compliance with non-immediate threat and needs correction

·         Immediate threat with immediate correction and formal compliance

·         Compliance audit model is risk based and is meant to be collaborative

·         2015 risk based audit selection includes waste and looking at high risk landfills

Landfill Design and Operations

Design

·         Protect ground and surface water

·         Modern landfills are highly engineered containment system: protect the environment

·         Permit to construct is issued to owner of site

·         4 design options: Landfill Design Best Practices, Alberta Code, SK Draft code, specifically designed for waste and site

·         450 metres from humans, 300 from water, not in a flood plain,

·         Designated areas for different types of materials

·         Environmental control systems to contain

·         Landfill gas management: gases from the waste

Operations

·         Cover and compaction only when operation is closed to the public

·         Burn small loads more often than do less frequent big burns

·         Signage needs to be clear

·         Operational plan: identify all permit requirements

·         Identify, daily, weekly, and monthly activities (part of new code)

·         Use GPS for site locations of some products

·         Permittee has weekly/monthly inspections

·         Be a good neighbour and clean up debris

·         Good plan includes: operation plan, ERP stations, parameters, and frequency

Landfills and TRansfer Stations

·         Waste burning prohibited for a long time

·         Toxics that go up will come down: toxic particulate will settle on land and urban

·         Carbon monoxide exposure

·         Toxic particulate can go down to aquifers

Landfill Closure

·         180 days’ notice of closure

·         Need a site assessment and corrective action plan

·         Subsurface, chemicals, groundwater, migration of contaminants

Soils

·         Soil guidelines on website with drop down menu and answers

·         Again, operation plans outlining intentions

·         Will WRLI be doing land farming? Treating contaminated soil?

·         Does fracking produce contaminated soil?

Groundwater Monitoring

·         Monitor impact of ground water to assess if a threat to human or environment

·         All landfills leak and they are a toxic stew

·         Monitoring depends on site assessment

Transfer Stations

·         Supervised during hours of operation

·         Similar to the operation of a landfill

·         Designated areas clearly identified

·         Ensure proper design: access to public, access to site, removal of waste

·         Collection of temporary waste is same as landfill

·         Recent findings: clean wood piles are not clean wood piles

Multi-Material Stewardship Western

·         Funding in year 3 to be based on Sask numbers rather than the launch using Manitoba numbers

·         Still working out kinks re papers and other producers

Litter and Illegal Dumping

·         TIPS is now used as a tool to catch violators

Municipality Capacity Building

·         Lots of services including waste management

·         Promote municipal cooperation and collaboration

Association of Regional Waste Management Authorities

·         Goal is for Sask to reduce waste 50%

·         Will we become a regional waste management authority?

·         To assist regions with new program design/development

SWANA

·         Advance practice of sound municipal solid waste management

·         Landfill operators in Sask do not need to be certified but looking at a recommendation to undertake training

·         Landfills are about the preservation of your airspace

·         Operators need to plan 18 months out

·         Landfills now need a Crisis Committee for emergency responses

·         How do you deal with 500 fridges at one time?

Waste Stewardship and Recycling

·         Hope to achieve: avoid, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, dispose

·         Regulated programs include: beverage containers, used auto fluids, scrap tires, electronics, paint, ag plastics, etc

SK Waste Reduction Council

·         Recycling database: saskwastereduction.ca

·         New is: household hazardous waste is only 1%-2% but dangerous, ag plastics, expansion of electronics recycling, food waste reduction and composting ($27 billion wasted per year and households waste 50%)

Recycle SK

·         Recycling groups working together to coordinate activities

·         To grow product management programs in SK

Moment with the Mayor: 2015 Budget Highlights

Hi Neighbours:

One of the changes Council has implemented is the earlier development of the budget. The goal of Council is to approve the budget in principle by the beginning of December. The budget will receive official passing after we receive our information from the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA), a provincial board.

Here are some highlights of the draft budget so far as presented at our Public Consultations:

• We expect salaries to increase for two reasons: union negotiations and our senior administrators are not making market salaries. For more than a year we have been looking for a new Director of Community Services without success, due mostly to the fact that our lowest counter offer is still below the expected wage or what the candidates are being offered in their current position. When compared to other municipalities across the province we are low.

• We owe more than $10 million for the Water Tower, Haubrich Water Treatment Plant and the E-K Water Line. Payments consume 7.3% of Kindersley’s revenue. As a note, the Province spends 2.3% to service its debt and expects us to take on debt to fund a lagoon and other projects.

• Big decreases in spending for 2015 include: road and sidewalk maintenance, and infrastructure repair and improvements (last year, Rutley Cres was a big fix); parks, and some other areas for lesser amounts.

• Capital projects underway include the Fire Hall, which we expect to begin construction this year, and the regional landfill. Funds set aside for those projects amounts to $750,000.

• The West Central Events Centre is around 25 years old and is entering a phase of its life cycle in which it needs more maintenance as it is beginning to show its age. As a result, we will be spending money to address a variety of issues.

• Construction on a new park is expected to begin in 2015 in the green space between the Hahn Cres. and Coleman Cres. It is currently configured to include play structures and a new soccer pitch.

• Overall, we expect tax increases to be around the rate of inflation.

As part of the budget process, two public consultations were held - one in the afternoon and one in the evening. There were no public submissions. I encourage everyone to also check out the new interactive budget website that has been created to educate the public on how taxes are spent and get input in our budget planning. It can be found here.

The budget will be passed in principle December 8^th.

Please write or phone if you would like me to discuss a particular topic. If you have any questions or comments, drop me a line at the town office or email me at mayorenns-wind@kindersley.ca. You can also check out my blog at http://mayorjohn.blogspot.ca/. I appreciate your feedback.

November Schedule

This is my tentative schedule for November and part of December. Like the other months there will likely be changes.

November   3 – Waste and Recycle RFP Interview

November   3 – Waste and Recycle RFP Interview

November   3 – Mayor’s Hours

November   3 – Economic Development Meeting

November   4 – Kindersley Visually Impaired Committee

November   4 – Special Meeting of Council

November   4 – Economic Development Meeting

November   4 – Joint Council Meeting of Town and RM of Kindersley

November 10 – Council Meeting

November 12– Chamber of Commerce Luncheon

November 14 – Mayor’s Hours

November 17 – Mayor’s Hours

November 18 – Regional Waste Management, Transfer Stations & Landfill Information Session (tentative)

November 19 – RM of Newcombe Meeting

November 21 – Mayors Hours

November 21 – KHS NA Steering Committee Meeting

November 24 – Mayor’s Hours

November 26 – West Central Municipal Government Committee: Elrose

November 28 – Mayor’s Hours

November 29 – Kindersley Christian Fellowship Xmas Party

December   1 – Mayor’s Hours

December   2 – Unavailable

December   2 – Kindersley Regional Park Authority Xmas Party

December   4 – Unavailable

December   5– Mayor’s Hours

December   8 – Mayor’s Hours

December   8 – Council Meeting

December 10 – Human Resource Meeting

December 11 – WK Water Line Meeting

December 12 – Mayor’s Hours

December 12 – RM of Kindersley Xmas Party

December 13 – Chamber of Commerce Xmas Party

A quick note: I have been sick for a couple of months resulting in a reduced workload and taking time off.