Travel necessary part of being on council
Mr. George McCrea recently wrote a Letter to the Editor about city council travel in which he implied that one councillor was taking more than his/her share of the travel “pot.” There is another side to this story and that is the councillor in question travelled in the stead of other councillors who could not or would not travel.
Being a city councillor is more than just attending council meetings and voting on motions. It requires a deep knowledge of the functioning of the city and the problems it faces. It is inconceivable that a city councillor can generate all the ideas and solutions that our city needs without travelling to other places to see how they solve their problems. Travel by councillors is intended for getting first-hand experience of new ideas, new technologies and new ways of doing things.
Society is changing at a scale similar to the Industrial Revolution. Jobs are being lost to technology; an exploding human population is the root cause of climate change, terrorism, mass migration, loss of wildlife habitat; there are demands for reconciliation, waste management, increases in policing; there is push-pull between city council and administration that requires strong, knowledgeable and professional councillors. All 100,000 cities in the developed world face the same issues and all need innovative ideas to come up with solutions. No single city is has all the answers so our municipal leaders need to build networks and share ideas.
Knowledge is power. Our city councillors need to get out and see how other cities are coming up with innovative solutions. There are opportunities to go to conferences and meetings where city councillors can meet like-minded cohorts and bring back great ideas to Lethbridge. Criticism of Councillor Hyggen’s travel is not fair and should be levelled at the city councillors who did not travel and did not become fully involved in the process of leading our city.
Council needs a policy that requires attendance a minimum of one out-of-town conference or meeting each year followed by a comprehensive report of the benefits of the travel. The travel policy must also be independent of the city manager and require only the approval of the mayor and council. David Major
Lethbridge