October 11th UPDATE:  The Minto municipal office issue was on the agenda at last night's Council meeting; however it was not discussed in the end.  More updates on this story will continue as we learn more.

 

Written October 10, 2023:

In November of 2022, the Municipality of Grassland brought forward a resolution at that Council meeting to reduce the hours of service at the Municipal office located in Minto, from 5 days down to 2 days a week, this to accommodate staff training at both the Minto location and the Hartney location under one roof.  

This new plan began early this year, in January of 2023.  Nine months later the community of Minto is wanting to know where things are at, and if the municipal office in Minto will resume its 5 days/week service to the southern end of their municipality.  To add to the dilemma, a resolution had been forwarded to close the Minto office completely. However, it was not seconded, but it did inspire the Minto area residents to share their thoughts with their councillors through a number of presentations at a more recent meeting.

Minto's Local Urban District (LUD) spokesman, Terry Campbell, shared a presentation to council last month, to stress the importance that the Minto office is to the region, noting that the municipality is 42 miles wide and 12 miles deep, creating its own set of challenges. The Minto office serves 35% of its ratepayers. 

"Everything that our ratepayers need access to by way of an office, we feel we need that at this end of the municipality also; everyday things like permit information, tax and utility payments, everything that a municipal office would provide."

"We're 9 months into this process of the reduced hours at Minto and we feel that council needs to revisit their decision because we feel that any training that needed to take place internally should be complete, and it's time to move forward and make the changes that they think they need to, and reopen the office," shares Campbell.

Campbell says the forwarding of the resolution to close the Minto office spurred action by the LUD, because had it gotten 'seconded' it could have led to being passed by Council. He adds residents want to know what council is basing their decisions on.

There is a Grassland Municipality meeting tonight (Tuesday, October 10th) at the Civic Building in Hartney, 209 Airdre, at 6:30 this evening. This issue is on tonight's agenda, and the meeting is open to the public.

"We certainly feel like we've not been consulted on this issue and would like Council to engage us in it," shares Campbell.  "We would be open to be brought into the discussion.  We feel that they don't really have a reason to close the office, and we just want Council to be more transparent."

"We don't know what the right answer may be in the end, but we also don't feel that they consulted the rate payers what they think is best for the municipality either," he adds. "Minto has a growing population, we've got an increase in school and daycare activities. If you close the municipality services in a certain area, you probably leave yourself open to stifle any economic development in the area also."

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