Mayor's Town Hall | Council's Decision Making | September 14, 2022
Mayor Sean Krausert gave a brief overview of what goes into Council's decision-making, including how that impacts the 2023 budget. He spent the rest of the hour answering questions. Apologies that the recording started a few minutes late. Below is a transcript of what Mayor Krausert presented before the recording began:
"Town Council is the main governing and legislative body of the Town of Canmore. It is made up of the elected mayor and six councillors who make decisions on behalf of the people in their community. As part of the decision-making process, Council considers the interests of the stakeholders of any particular issue, as well as those of the entire community. At the same time, they also need to ensure that decisions are made in an equitable, impartial, and legal way.
Trying to accommodate the interests of constituent groups with those of the whole community is an important and challenging issue.
One of the complexities of being a member of Council is to always act in the interests of the community as a whole, sometimes despite potentially opposing the views of those who elected them.
Good governance processes allow councillors to put forward stakeholders’ issues for formal consideration by Council. They also ensure that councillors represent the interests of the whole municipality.
Councillors must ensure that they consider all the available arguments and information before finally making up their minds on an issue. As well, they must be able to demonstrate that they are capable of being persuaded by the advice they receive. This doesn’t mean, however, that they must follow the advice. Instead, they must, at the very least, be able to demonstrate that they have considered it.
Council strategic plans, annual budgets, and business plans are the key tools that determine whether the proposal is both priority and is affordable.
An important factor in decision-making is that decisions have to be financially realistic and we use Council’s strategic plan, annual budgets, and business plans as key tools to determine priorities.
In July, we provided the parameters for administration to prepare the preliminary operating and capital budgets. Based on some of the known items with cost increases, especially due to high inflation and rising interest rates, the starting point for the budget work will be a status quo municipal budget with a projected increase in excess of 10% next year. We will also be given prioritized lists of optional increases or decreases to the 2023 and 2024 budgets for consideration, based on our strategic priorities and changing community needs. We will begin budget deliberations in November for a final decision in December."