ECA Review - 2024-04-18

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2 April 18'24 HANNA/CORONATION/STETTLER, AB. ECA REVIEW VIEWPOINTS The opinions expressed are not necessarily the opinions of this newspaper. R R R R R Published by Coronation Review Limited Reasonable Rates Remarkable Reach Subscriptions: $63.00 in Canada; $98.70 in US; $183.75 Overseas. MAIL BAG TD Bank – profitable but unproductive staff?? Dear Editor, After many conversations with TD Bank VPs over the past three months it was indicated that the Coronation branch was profitable. In our March 28, 2024 meeting with two TD Bank VPs I highlighted the following four points: • Fully-funded branch by deposits, using overage to leverage other loans in other locations. • Fees – monthly / deposits / withdrawals / RRSPs / banking transactions keep the lights on and pay the staff. • Free current account balances, loans and loan fees are branch profit. • Retail cards (Visa, Debit) create profit for the branch. I travel all over Alberta for business and my wife is a world traveller but our transaction fees come back to the Coronation branch. It was then that the TD VPs indicated that the TD Bank was profitable (net income for the 12 month period ending Jan. 31, 2024 was 8.498 billion dollars) and so was the Coronation Branch. Then they proceeded to try to make five local business men understand that the staff were unproductive, even though they are making money. The TD VPs indicated that the real reason for closure is that they applied a “formula” that indicated our branch staff are unproductive. If we had used the tellers more and the ATM and online banking less our branch would still stay open. If we just look at the economics of the Coronation TD Bank closure it reflects very badly on the TD Bank. I know many business men who are incredulous that the bank is prepared to run away from easy money by closing a profitable branch. Stewart Twa Veteran, Alta. CANADIAN TAXPAYERS FEDERATION Taxpayers applaud pay freeze for Alberta MLAs The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is applauding the Alberta Legislature’s decision to freeze the pay of provincial politicians, including the premier. “Over the past few years, we’ve seen local businesses struggle and many folks missing raises, so it shows good leadership for politicians at the legislature to refuse a pay hike,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “Albertans should not be on the hook for politician pay hikes, and this continued pay freeze at the legislature is in stark contrast to the city hall pay hikes we are seeing in Calgary and Edmonton.” Alberta Members of the Legislative Assembly are paid $120,936 per year. Cabinet ministers, the speaker and the leader of the opposition are paid $181,404 per year. Advertise in the The premier of Alberta is paid $186,180 per year. Pay for politicians at the Alberta legislature has been frozen since 2019 when they also took a $7,000 per year pay cut. In contrast, the mayor of Calgary is paid $213,000 per year and the Mayor of Edmonton is paid $216,585. These high salaries follow years of pay hikes at city hall for both councillors and mayors. “Premier Danielle Smith is making the right move to refuse a pay hike and it would be great to see the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton follow this lead,” said Sims. “We never hesitate to criticize politicians, but it’s important to praise them when they do the right thing, and refusing a pay hike is the right thing.” 72 pt East Central Alberta EVIEW 60 pt 48 pt 36 pt Website ECAreview.com Office Hours Mon. - Fri. 9 am - 5 pm R 30 pt 4921 - Victoria Avenue Tel. (403) 578-4111 R 24 pt Mail: Box 70, Coronation, AB Canada, T0C 1C0 LETTERS POLICY • Letters to the Editor are welcomed • Must be signed and a phone number included so the writer’s identity can be verified. • ECA Review reserves the right to edit letters for legal considerations, taste and brevity. Letters and columns submitted are not necessarily the opinion of this newspaper. MEMBER OF: Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. MAIL BAG Considerable contrast to the prevailing narratives Dear Editor. This is regarding a CBC article that ‘Calls grow louder for B.C. mayor to resign over residential school book incident’, by Betsy Trumpener, Andrew Kurjata Apr. 5, 2024. The collision between Quesnel Mayor Ron Paull and the local indigenous people was inevitable, and serves well as a reminder that while we can burn the books and the churches, we cannot burn our history. The book Grave Error by authors C.P. Champion and Tom Flanagan is nothing more than an eloquent, unemotional, factual narrative discussing their findings that no identifiable remains have been found in any of those residential school’s graveyards anywhere in Canada. A considerable contrast to the prevailing narratives loaded with misinformation and unqualified grievances, promoted by our politicians who are more concerned about being woke and politically correct than they are about finding resolutions to all those grievances. The book also explains how and why the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) cannot identify human remains with JOYCE WEBSTER Publisher/Editor office@ECAreview.com any degree of certainty. It can only identify soil disturbances. Without the facts, we will never have meaningful reconciliation. That is why it’s essential our libraries have an ample inventory of those books. A lot of people will want to read them. To resolve these issues, it’s essential politicians and the media acquaint themselves with the facts. A good starting point would be reading Grave Error. Having read the book, clarifies many of the claims, like ‘the schools did not exist’, when in fact it was the indigenous people who asked the government to build some of those schools, because they wanted their children to get an education. They also wanted them to learn English. The book also does not deny the fact some abuse did take place. The fact is the only guide to reconciliation, and people who have not read Grave Error, and are not familiar with the content of that book, are not well prepared to participate in those debates. Andy Thomsen Kelowna, B.C. Discover the east country magazine Over 10,000 copies picked up at Tourist Information Booths and businesses. Deadline Fri. April 26 Contact: Judy 403-740-2492 marketing@ECAreview.com JUDY WALGENBACH Marketing 403-740-2492 marketing@ECAreview.com Cheryl 403-650-2644 News1@ECAreview.com STU SALKELD LJI Reporter 403-741-2615 reporter@ECAreview.com LISA MYERS-SORTLAND Graphic Artist CHERYL BOWMAN Reporter/Photographer 403-650-2644 news1@ECAreview.com R 18 pt
ECA REVIEW HANNA/CORONATION/STETTLER, AB April 18'24 3 CASTOR COUNCIL Council will negotiate over outstanding property tax Cheryl Bowman Multimedia reporter ECA Review The Town of Castor town council approved negotiations and agreements with property owners who owe outstanding tax bills. The decision was made at the April 8 regular meeting of council. In January 2024 the Town of Castor mailed tax notification letters to owners who had taxes due over one year in arrears. Three properties were noted as having such arrears. Councillors were provided with a letter from one such property owner whose identity was redacted from the council agenda. CASTOR COUNCIL This property owner’s letter stated they were aware they owed outstanding taxes and wanted to pay them off over time and included a schedule for payments. According to Section 418(4) of the Municipal Government Act (MGA) division 8 recovery of taxes related to land, “The municipality may enter into an agreement with the owner of a parcel of land shown on its tax arrears list providing for the payment of the tax arrears over a period not exceeding three years, and in that event the parcel need not be offered for sale under subsection (1) until: (a.) the agreement has expired, or (b.) the owner of the parcel breaches the agreement, whichever comes first.” Council discussed implications to the 2024 budget upon entering into an agreement with the title holders on the three parcels. It was noted that in the event the properties proceed to a tax sale, the additional fees would be added to the tax roll for collection. A breach to the agreement could result in a tax sale of the properties and as CAO Donna Rowland noted it would be clearly written in the agreement and each agreement would be written separately. Council moved to enter into a tax agreement with the title holders. Golf club request turned down Cheryl Bowman Accounting Multimedia reporter Council moved to accept the ECA Review cash statement ending Feb. 29, 2024 as presented and a motion was approved to pay the list of accounts dated March 26 to April 5 for $179,048.56. Castor town council moved to approve the 2024 grant of $5,000 to the Castor Golf Club, the same amount as in 2023, at their regular April 8 council meeting but denied the camp stall request for the clubhouse manager. Last year the town had also provided a campground spot for the clubhouse manager. It was noted that the camp sites may be full this summer due to the renewable energy projects being done in the area and this would result in a $3,750 revenue loss for the town. Castor golf club had also requested financial consideration for a contribution to their fundraising efforts of their purchase of a fairway mower. The mower was purchased late last August and has been secured with a loan. The request was made in November 2023 and at that time council moved that the request be tabled until the golf club provided its financial statements ending Dec. 31, 2023 which has been provided. Council turned down the fairway mower financial support request. Budget talks The 2024 operating budget was presented and as noted by CAO Donna Rowland, the actual numbers have not yet been audited and some revenue has a zero balance because taxes have not yet been processed. Ball clinics Ryan Trask will be offering baseball clinics and Amy Trask will offer softball clinics in May with each offering a morning session for younger players and an afternoon session for older players. Cost for the clinics to the town, outside of regular ball diamond maintenance, would be travel costs from Edmonton and lunch. Council approved the recommendation of a $30 per player fee using noted expenses as the baseline. Currently there are 40 participants registered. Pool swim sponsorship Community Services Director Tara Jenkins proposed a Sunday afternoon public swim sponsorship program in a letter to council. It proposed that businesses could sponsor public swimming at the 2024 season rate of $150. Council moved to approve the recommendation as put forward by the recreation department. Town spring clean-up Council approved that the town will sponsor the hamburgers, hot dogs and buns for the yearly town clean-up May 22, a cost of approximately $300 and will ask Castor and District Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) to supply the chips and beverages. Graduating class Council agreed to issue a letter of support for a truck and trailer for a parade May 31 for Gus Wetter’s graduating class as a parade permit from Alberta Transportation is required. Gus Wetter school also requested help hanging grad banners to be installed on six light poles in town for the 12 graduates of 2024. HUGHENDEN PUBLIC SCHOOL Hardisty’s Easter egg hunt by Anna Jones Local Hardisty companies got together with organizer Miranda Mccharles to create an Easter egg hunt for everybody in town to compete in, including some four-legged members. The task was to find the golden egg. Multiple eggs were hidden in the Hardisty main street area, along walking trails and in the park ball diamonds. There were also many sorryfor-your-luck eggs which would contain nothing. There were 20 mystery eggs hidden as well containing a small prize. If a person stumbled upon an egg without a coupon, they were asked to leave the plastic egg in its original place. Participants were only allowed to redeem two prize eggs with a coupon, but if they happened to find three prizes in an egg, the request was to leave one in the egg for the next person to find and use. This wonderfully fun Easter egg hunt lasted for three days, March 29 - 31, 2024. Families searched far and wide for the eggs. If you happen to find some plastic eggs still laying around in the Hardisty area, please contact Miranda Mccharles at 780-842-8962 and she’ll let you know what to do next! We’re celebrating Frances Forrest’s 100 th birthday! Spring HANNA HOSPITAL LADIES AUXILIARY SATURDAY, APRIL 27 2024 DROP OFF HOURS: Thursday, APRIL 25 - 9 am to 8 pm Friday, APRIL 26 - 9 am to 3 pm Please join us for Come & Go Tea Sat., April 20 from 2-4pm at Talbot hall Rummage Sale 10 AM- 3:00 PM 501 - 3rd Street West, Hanna, AB Got News? Email or drop off your NEWS & PHOTOS to ECA Review email: office@ ECAreview.com drop off: 4921 Victoria Ave., Coronation Remember to identify all people in your photos. Paintearth Regional Waste Management Ltd. SUMMER HOURS Effective Wednesday, April 10 th , 2024 The Castor, Coronation and Halkirk Transfer Stations Summer Hours of Operation will be: Wednesdays 1:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. Saturdays 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. If you don’t have an access card, they are available at the Halkirk Village Office, Town of Castor Office, County of Paintearth No. 18 Office and Coronation Transfer Station Retirement Announcement After 42 ½ years in Coronation and 5½ years before that in Edmonton, I am retiring from the practice of law and have sold my law practice to Daniel Wilson and Cheyla Lachowsky, effective May 1, 2024. Cheyla will be in the Coronation office in the mall on Wednesdays, starting on May 1st and will be happy to meet with clients. The Coronation office will retain existing files, corporate minute books and seals and any original Wills that remain in safe storage. The office will continue to have the same phone number (403-578-3131) and email address /corlaw@xplornet.ca). I will be available from time to time after May 1st to help wrap up some existing files. Thank You I extend a heart-felt thank you to all of my clients and loyal staff who have supported my law practice over the many years and wish you all the very best as I transition into retirement. Sincerely, Roger Spady
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ECA Review - 2024-04-18

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