The MD of Bonnyville set a good example for neighouring municipalities at its town hall a couple miles across the County of St. Paul border on Dec. 13. (For story, see page 18).
The hour and a half town hall provided a chance for MD residents in the Flat Lake area, many who consider St. Paul their service area, the chance to grill councillors and directors on a wide variety of topics. While it took some friendly prodding from Reeve Ed Rondeau to get the ball rolling, once it started, attendees had more than enough questions for the panel to address. From illegal dumping, to responsibilities of MD peace officers, to traffic noise and road bans, there was no shortage of concerns from the 25 in attendance.
The MD of Bonnyville puts on quite the tour through the MD, taking its town hall to 11 locations in the fall season. As Rondeau puts it “To me if you do nothing else, this is the thing to do.”
In a split vote, the County of St. Paul decided against holding an open house this year to discuss the year-end financial statement in May. While the County has held annual meetings in the past, attendance has been poor, influencing the decision to pass this year. Perhaps a cost effective solution to engage the electorate would be to take regularly scheduled council meetings on the road to community halls throughout the year.
Taking all the directors and councillors and putting them up to public scrutiny like the MD’s town hall tour is a great way to flesh out problems faced in the region. A town hall is where the community can face its representatives head to head and hear other concerns from within the area. A town hall is the best forum for moving the community forward together by finding the bonds that unite us and fixing the problems between us.
It’s not always easy, according to Rondeau, but at the end of the day he’s right that it identifies the small problems and helps take care of the big ones. It’s better to face criticism openly and directly, and to address problems immediately and publicly, than to give people no other option than to brood about problems they may be facing and feel are not addressed.
