The Village of Halkirk council welcomed a pair of delegations to its Feb. 8 council meeting.
First up was Sarah Skinner, a representative of the Battle River Watershed Alliance (BRWA).
Skinner was visiting Halkirk to connect with the council and let them know what the BRWA did.
During her presentation, Skinner noted that BRWA is a non-regulatory government agency that “encourages voluntary actions and efforts” to preserve and protect the watershed.
She highlighted a multi-pronged approach taken by the BRWA, which includes management plans and youth education.
“We’re planning to do a round of engagement sessions around (municipal development plans),” said Skinner.
“There are opportunities for you to be involved … we’re involved in a lot of different drought conversations right now and we’re inviting municipalities to be involved in those as well”
Before leaving, Skinner highlighted a watershed summit which would be occurring on Feb. 29 which council was invited to, engagement sessions in April that had yet to be scheduled, and the youth education sessions, which include an environment walk which takes place at Big Knife Park a short distance north of Halkirk.
Emergency Management
The second delegation of the evening was the County of Paintearth director of Emergency Management (DEM), Todd Pawsey.
Pawsey was attending council to clarify his role as DEM, and let council know what needs to be done before he can officially be appointed into the position.
Under the Emergency Management program, the county, the Village of Halkirk, the Town of Castor and the Town of Coronation are all coming under one partnership agreement, approved by the province.
“The partnership is, if one has an event, we all have an event,” said Pawsey.
“We are in the process of finalizing these documents.”
Under the agreement, the village would have to approve a new emergency management bylaw, which would appoint Pawsey as DEM, as well as appoint a new municipal-level deputy DEM..
“We’re kind of tied at the hip anyways,” said Pawsey.
“We can help with all the extra administrative (requirements).”
According to Pawsey, by all the communities moving under the county into one emergency management agency the administration requirements, which are legislated by the province but can be challenging for small communities to meet, can be streamlined.
Council agreed that moving under the county plan was agreeable, and Mayor Jan Koenraadt motioned to that effect, which carried.
Information on the process will be updated as the process moves forward.
Development Permit
Halkirk council has approved a development permit for a new building on the site of the Capital Power yard.
Capital Power will be constructing a 50-foot by 75-foot shed with an oil storage building on its side this spring to aid in the servicing of all the wind towers in the Halkirk region.
The new construction won’t affect the current fenceline and will be built on the existing property footprint.
Manager Mark Jackson says that if anyone has any concerns, he is in the office “five days a week.”
The construction was approved in a motion by Coun. Dennis Cordel.
Accounts
Interim chief administrative officer (CAO) Marcy Renschler and administrative assistant Doris Cordel are still working through the village accounts attempting to get things balanced.
“We’re not sure we’ll be done with 2023 for a while because there are some bills that haven’t been paired yet,” said Renschler.
“We haven’t been able to get the books to balance yet.”
Carbon Levy
Village of Halkirk residents will be paying a bit more in carbon levy on their home heating due to a miscalculation last year.
According to CAO Marcy Renschler, the wrong rates for most of 2023 were used, leaving the village with a shortfall in the collection.
As the village is mandated to collect the levy by the federal government, the village was left with two options, by out of pocket, leaving a deficit, or passing it on to the consumers.
“It was a shortfall of about $6,000 that the village under-collected.,” said Renschler.
“We’re required to collect it and submit it to Revenue Canada.”
Council motioned to increase the levy to balance the books, and to add a letter to the bill explaining the situation.
Councilor Cordel also added that residents be given extra time to pay the extra amount and not be charged late fees.
The motions carried.