LAC STE. ANNE COUNTY A YEAR IN REVIEW #1

LAC STE. ANNE COUNTY A YEAR IN REVIEW

This will be a series of articles that will provide a snapshot of what our dedicated group from the LSARA executive have been doing for the past year. We have continued in our efforts to effectively communicate with Council by meeting face to face and then submitting our queries, as we discussed, in writing. The thought with this process was that we would have meaningful dialogue and then we would follow it up with questions and receive timely, informative answers.

We will publish a series of the Q & A then you can be the judge as to whether or not you think the process has changed for the better or has it remained the same where the responses either don’t answer the query or they are so vague that there is no value. 

The questions and responses are verbatim. The following are the first two questions and responses in our series of the Q & A.

Question # 1.  Survey- LSARA requested a copy but we were told the survey was closed. There was no date for closure indicated on the advertisement so we naturally assumed that the survey was still open. A copy of the survey and an extension on the survey for LSARA to be able to review and possibly publish is requested. 

OCTOBER 22/2018 LAC STE. ANNE BULLETIN

LSAC Response to our Question #1: 

As you can see below the survey was advertised on the website, social media and in the Bulletin as available “Throughout the month of October”. 

A copy of the survey questions were provided to LSARA on November 2, 2018 following their request for same on November 1, 2018 by email. Following presentation to council on November 8, 2018 the survey results were posted on www.LSAC.ca for any interested public. County Council would have to consider a request to extend the survey. Administration would not recommend allowing a third party to publish a municipal survey, however LSARA does have the option to post links to any County content. 

Actual Email of November 2, 2018

From: Robert Osmond <rosmond@lsac.ca>
Date: Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 11:08 AM
Subject: RE: Budget survey
To: LSARA CARES <lsaracares@gmail.com>
Cc: Mike Primeau <mprimeau@lsac.ca>, Joe Blakeman <JBlakeman@lsac.ca>, Nicholas Gelych <NGelych@lsac.ca>

Good morning,

You are correct that a deadline for submissions was not included in the advertisements for the Lac Ste. Anne County Budget 2019 Survey, however the larger version of the advertisement published Sep 24th, Oct 1st, 8th and 15th did specify the survey would be available throughout the month of October. The Lac Ste. Anne County Budget 2019 Survey Results have been added to the November 8, 2018 Council agenda.

The list of questions included in the Budget Survey were:

• Q1 Where do you live? 
• Q2 What is your age? 
• Q3 Current standards have Development and Safety Codes permits processed, approved and distributed to the applicant in approximately 14, days. Remembering that faster processing times will cost more, should the County consider departmental changes to reduce processing times? 
• Q4 Lac Ste. Anne County uses a Special Recreation Tax of $50 per residential property to raise more than $280,000 annually to provide financial support, paid as grants, to organizations operating community recreation facilities and programming. Should investments in these facilities and programs including arenas, curling rinks, ball diamonds, school athletics, minor sports, and many others be increased, maintained or decreased? 
• Q5 Over the past several years the County has used a variety of grants in developing communications towers upon which Internet Service Providers and Mobile Service Providers can locate equipment to service rural communities. Should County Council increase investment in projects to improve communications in our rural communities? 
• Q6 What priorities require the most attention from County Council and Administration in the coming year? Choose three. 
• Q7 What are your preferred methods to receive general public communication from the County? Choose three. 
• Q8 Would you say you are very, somewhat, not very or not at all knowledgeable about how County property tax dollars are spent? Click here to see how 2018 property tax dollars are being spent. 
• Q9 Rate the importance of the following projects identified as the next priorities on the County’s Capital Road Plan. 
• Q10 The County recognizes that our local economic success is built from a number of factors. Which of the economic drivers below should be the focus of Lac Ste. Anne County’s Business Development efforts? 
• Q11 We value your opinion. Please provide any additional comments you wish to share.

Thank you,
Robert Osmond

Assistant County Manager and Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Lac Ste. Anne County

LSARA’s response to this (had we responded ) likely would have been to point out that not everyone checks the website looking for this type of thing. Not all County residents are on social media, nor do all County residents receive the Bulletin. Seemed like a great idea to us that Council and Administration would want as much feedback as possible but apparently not. We could have emailed our membership, posted on our blog for all our followers to view. 

Question #2. Will council be willing/able to write weekly articles explaining what is happening in greater detail so Joe Public ratepayer have a better idea of what councillors are working on?

LSAC Response to our Question #2:  

County Council would have to consider a request to provide regular written updates for publication. Currently the Reeves  Message is produced monthly, in the Bulletin, KeepMe and on the County website, with key messages as identified by Reeve Blakeman. Additionally, weekly information on a wide variety of topics from services, workshops, notices and many other topics are published in the Bulletin, County Website and Social Media platforms. 

LSARA did not request key messages about conferences, workshops, notices. We asked for information on where their efforts are being directed. Are they actively seeking commercial, industrial business partners? Are they involved in a regional plan to better serve the Region with other Municipalities? The last time we checked, certain publications have identified the members of LSARA as “east end chihuahuas and east end bandits”.  Pretty sure our membership won’t be looking to that information source anytime in the near future. 

On another note, it appears that a glossy booklet has been mailed to all residents of LSAC. Apparently this will be a quarterly issue. There is a great cost to this booklet to publish and to mail. Is that the type of communication the Ratepayers of LSAC are prepared to pay for? Is that what YOU want to see? 

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Your comments and concerns are valued. Your membership is very important to us. We look forward to greeting you all at our Annual General Meeting March 31st at the GUNN Hall from 2-4 pm.  Stay tuned for Post #2 in the series.