The following topics were discussed at the Regular Council Meeting on Tuesday, December 15th.

RCMP Quarterly Update – Corporal Amatto

The RCMP detachment has committed to provide quarterly updates to Council providing statistical crime rate comparisons and other community based preventative programming information. Corporal Amatto provided council with a brief statistic update highlighting some of the different types and amount of crime the RCMP are seeing in the area. Amatto than moved on to update Council on the Habitual Offender Management Program. The HOM program was created as part of the RCMP “K” Division Crime Reductions Strategy in 2013. The program provides a framework for the RCMP, the Alberta Justice and Solicitor General Correctional Services Division and other key community partners to respond to those offenders who are responsible for committing a disproportionately high number of crimes in a community. Corporal Amatto provided a definition of what a Habitual Offender is. They are defines as an adult or youth with an established pattern of persistent criminal code, controlled drugs and substances act and or youth criminal justice act offences, who are identified by current intelligence to be criminally active. The presentation also included stats from 2015 that show a rise in the Crime Severity Index. 2015 was the first time there was an increase since 2003. Another point of the presentation was that there are Habitual Hot Spots in many communities that show crime tends to be concentrated in certain areas within a jurisdiction. One of the final main talking points from Corporal Amatto’s presentation was the benefits of having the HOM Program in the community. The main benefits are that there is a decrease in man-hours for the same offender, there are longer custodial sentences, RCMP will know the offender and be able to have a risk assessment ready. Amatto also said that there is decreased victimization, a change in perception by the courts with these habitual offenders and that information can be shared easily from department to department.

2021 South Region Urban Orthophotography Project

Ortho Photos provide aerial photography that is corrected for distance, area, and direction by draping the acquired imagery over the surface of the earth. These corrected images used in our local mapping platforms provide a valuable tool for all aspects of our operations including assessment, construction, survey, taxation, addressing, emergency services, etc. Day to day use examples include simple image viewing, measuring distances, calculating areas, planning job layouts, project ground truthing and confirmations, as well as building footprint calculations. Consistent refresh cycles of ortho photo imagery has been considered an operational requirement for the expected efficiencies it provides. The Municipality has participated in this ortho project with ORRSC with member urban municipalities in order to continue to acquire critical imagery every 3 to 4 years. This was done in 2002, 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2017. The area of coverage has been just the urban area and not the entire boundaries. The imagery is done at 12cm pixels. The Municipality is also looking to partner for the first time, with the 2021 Southern Alberta Partnership Ortho Photo Project to complete a fly over of the entire boundaries of the community however at a lesser resolution of 25cm pixels. This will be more cost effective but will allow us to have some imagery for our more rural areas that we do utilize from time to time. The frequency of these photos will be less often as they will be used more for reference. This collaborative approach has reduced our cost for Ortho Photos to an absolute minimum and has been able to attract considerable amounts of provincial government grant funding in the past. Councillor Filipuzzi made a motion that Council moves to participate in an application for the 2021 South Region Urban Orthophotography Project submitted by the Town of Fort Macleod under the Intermunicipal Collaboration component of the Alberta Community Partnership Grant and that the Municipality of Crowsnest pass agrees to abide by the terms of the Conditional Grant Agreement, governing the purpose and use of the grant funds. The motion was carried.

Crowsnest Pass Senior Housing Reserve

In 2011 a reserve account was established named Crowsnest Pass Senior Housing Authority Facility Upgrade with the purpose of supporting the rehabilitation and expansion of the York Creek Lodge. As a show of support for Senior Housing Authorities' application for funding from the Province, the Municipality committed to funding up to $1 million dollars towards the project. In lieu of funding the Municipality contributed the land for the project. The land transfer occurred in 2016. With the project nearing completion, the purpose for the reserve has been met and therefore can be closed with the balance of $74,809 being transferred to the Mill Rate Stabilization Reserve. After a short discussion, Council decided to leave the funds as is for now.

MD of Pincher Creek ICF Update

The ICF Committee met with the MD of Pincher Creek to discuss our outstanding ICF agreement. The committee had follow up discussion on several service areas and where we could work together to improve the service through a collaborative effort. Most of the identified ones proved to not be warranted for any changes at this time, however there was agreement that the MD of Pincher Creek residents do utilize the recreational facilities of Crowsnest Pass. A draft agreement on recreational facilities was discussed and will be forwarded to both Council's in the new year. Additionally, the ICF document will be updated to include this agreement and will be forwarded to both Council's for adoption prior to our March deadline. Lastly, both Administrations will continue to explore what other service areas can be improved by working together. Council accepted this information.

Protective Services Advisory Committee Discussion

The Protective Services Advisory Committee has been on hold awaiting further direction from Council to establish a meaningful mandate for the committee in order to incorporate the committee under 1055, 2020 General Committees Bylaw. A presentation was provided at the December 1, 2020 Council meeting by Michael Taje, Chairperson of the Protective Services Advisory Committee proposing a new direction for the committee for Council's consideration. Mr. Taje proposed renaming the committee and suggested a work plan to move the committee forward. Council requested that the information be brought back to Council for further discussion. During the discussion, Mayor Painter brought up some concerns about how the process of bringing information back to Council would work. Councillors Anctil, Glavin and Ward all believe it would be worthwhile to have the committee return to Council in the New Year with a larger scale plan of what the committee will look like. After discussion, Councillor Ward moved that Administration contact the Chairperson of the Protective Services Advisory Committee to request that the committee, including the two members of Council, expand and elaborate upon the six recommendations as provided in the December 1st presentation in addition to including a rural crime watch component; to schedule the required number of meetings commencing in January either virtually or in person subject to Covid restrictions with a report to come back to Council in mid-March with recommendations as to how the committee should move forward in 2021. The motion was carried.

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