July 25, 2022 Council Highlights
Posted July 27, 2022
Strategic Plan Officially Open for Online Feedback
A Strategic Plan Open House was held on June 20, 2022, and from it, several pieces of feedback were received.
The feedback we received was for goal 1: “Ensure that the Town of Peace River remains a sustainable and vibrant municipality,” and goal 3: “Build a physically connected community.”
For goal 1, two specific suggestions were given, which were to bring more flights into Peace River, and to attract retirees from Yellowknife. For goal 3, it was suggested that we work on development in Upper West Peace.
Out of the options provided, Council has decided to provide a section on the Town Council’s Strategic Plan webpage for residents, business owners and all other stakeholders to provide feedback after reading through the drafted Strategic Plan.
This form for feedback will be available to the public for the next 1 1/2 weeks, until Council’s next regular meeting on Monday, August 8.
Peace River Brigade Landing Enabling Motion
The Peace River Brigade is a branch of the Canadian Voyageur Brigade Society and have paddled down our river and to our Town in the past. The purpose of this voyage is to offer a chance for paddlers to experience the historic Peace River area and connect with local communities while retracing the path of early voyageur fur traders and Indigenous people.
Council was enabled to attend the landing of the Brigade, giving permission to land and offering a few words of welcome to the paddlers after a long trip to our town.
All community members are welcome to attend, and the brigade encourages the public to speak with the paddlers on the voyage about their experiences.
More information can be found in the post below.
Signing Memorandum of Understanding
In accordance with section 17(1) of the Peace Officer (Ministerial) Regulation, employers of Peace Officers in the Province of Alberta must enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the police service of jurisdiction in order for the services of a Peace Officer to be carried out in accordance with the said Regulation.
For the Town of Peace River, the police service of jurisdiction is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Departmental Representative, identified in the MOU for the Town, is the Mayor.
The term of this Memorandum is five years, and with the expiration of the previous MOU, a new, signed, MOU is required.
The Mayor was approved to sign the MOU on behalf of the Town. The MOU can be read here.
CRA Bulletin Replacement
After the Town’s GST audit and subsequent discussions, the CRA is planning to revamp Bulletin B-067 to clarify that just because a municipality transfers money to another municipality there is not necessarily a supply of a service and thus no GST implication.
The notable changes are as follows:
- Section 18 says the wording of an agreement should not be the sole determinant of the direct link. This means we don’t need to tweak all our existing agreements as it is the actions of the parties, not the words that will influence the CRA opinion.
- Section 25 is the interesting paragraph. “To financially support an activity…. where the main purpose for making a transfer payment is to financially support a grantee in undertaking
activities that benefit the general public or a particular segment of the general public, and the main purpose is not to acquire an input into a grantor’s activities or to contract out its responsibilities, this is an indicator that the transfer payment is not consideration for a supply. As such, there is likely no direct link between the transfer payment provided by the grantor and a supply made by the grantee. Many transfer payments provided by governments and public service bodies fall into this category.”
Most (or all) of the activities covered in our respective ICF agreements would fall under this category which is specified as having no direct link and supply and therefore not subject to GST. FCSS agreements and other various recreation agreements would also fit here.
More information on the Town’s appealment of the assessment of $609,571.41 from the CRA can be found in the Briefing Note presented to Council at the March 28, 2022 Regular Council Meeting by then-Legislative Services Coordinator Ruth McCuaig.
Meeting Audio
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