Town council meeting briefs from June 24

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The following are selected briefs from the June 24 Town of Taber council meeting.

Workplace Violence and Harassment Policy

The administration asked council to approve an updated Workplace Violence & Harassment Prevention Policy and repeal the previous policies that stood alone as two seperate documents. The policies were due for renewal. According to the agenda, both policies underwent a review, and it was determined that both required additional information to be compliant with Occupational Health & Safety legislation and that both policies could be combined into one.

  A new policy was created with the assistance of an external HR service provider along with the health and safety coordinator to ensure legislative compliance. The main difference between the existing policies and the new policy was the addition of a definition section. The new policy included clear definitions workplace violence, domestic violence, sexual violence, and workplace harrassment.

 The policy applies to elected officials, board, committee or commission members, police officers, all police service employees, and all current employees of the Town of Taber, including full-time, part-time, casual, contracted, permanent and temporary employees. It applies to all settings that are in some way connected to work, including but not limited to off-site meetings, training and on business trips.

 Council unanimously approved the new policy and repealed the previous versions of it.

Destruction of Municipal Documents

Donna Weiss, the Town’s taxation and finance manager, asked council to approve the destruction of obsolete documents. Town records retained by the recreation and finance departments are reviewed on an annual basis. The agenda included a list of documents from each department that were scheduled to be destroyed. This is done as per bylaw No 10-99 – Retention of Municipal Documents. Section 6-Records of Retention and Destruction states: “All records destroyed should be authorized by the council and the destruction should be carried out in the presence of witnesses. If approved, the documents listed in the attachments will be destroyed utilizing the Town’s contracted shredding provider and the destruction will be under the supervision of a witness from administration.” All the documents were dated from 2016 except for the Under 18 Ambulance Reports from 2003-2004. Council voted unanimously in favour of the destruction.

Hosting a SouthGrow meeting

Amy Allred, Taber’s economic development manager, informed council that SouthGrow Regional Initiative would like to host a meeting in Taber on Oct. 3. SouthGrow defines itself as “an economic development alliance of twenty-nine south central Alberta communities committed to working together to achieve prosperity for the region. Representing over 185,000 people, SouthGrow is committed to assisting communities, organizations, businesses and people in the region to further their economic development goals and to maintain the high quality of life.”

Allred said there would be no financial commitment required from council, as SouthGrow will pay for catering and the venue. If the chosen venue is a Town facility, Allred indicated that she would likely return to council with a request for a rental waiver. The event would draw 25 to 40 attendees and SouthGrow asked if the mayor or a designate would offer greetings.

Coun. Sorensen said she had recently attended a similar SouthGrow event and she vouched

for the positive impacts of developing a community network. Coun. McLean made a motion to direct the administration to offer Taber as the host community for the October meeting. It was carried unanimously.