County postpones decision on municipal inspection
The motion to have the minister of municipal affairs conduct an inspection of Cypress County has been postponed, in hopes of further information coming forward.
Councillor Robin Kurpjuweit, who had initially put forward the notice of motion at the last meeting, expressed that he felt there were “attempts to dissuade counsel from supporting this moving forward.”
“It came to my attention last weekend that some councillors have been advised that there would be potential costs to this investigation, and were given even potential number figures,” said Kurpjuweit.
“This is a further example of irregular governance that supports the need for a review like this. Just to clarify what is or is not appropriate.”
Kurpjuweit expressed that this request for inspection was not in response to any dissatisfaction regarding any council decisions, but simply from a desire to ensure transparency and good government.
He noted that he had expressed concern regarding public trust in the past, and sees the potential for inspection as a chance to preserve trust.
Seeing the need for more information for Council prior to the decision being made, Kurpjuweit postponed the motion until after the coming RMA convention, and encouraged Council to not move forward with available alternative motions until that time.
Land productivity map drawn up
Cypress County, as part of its ongoing discussions on renewable energy and related projects, has created the Agricultural Land Resource Atlas to better inform decisions moving forward.
The atlas is designed to showcase the productivity of land within the county, particularly land that could potentially host a renewable project in the future. Areas such as Crown or leased lands are excluded for this purpose.
Cypress County’s Municipal Development Plan is stated to work to prevent fragmentation of prime agricultural lands.
It was noted the atlas could be used from both an irrigation agricultural or renewables perspective to seek out new growth opportunities, which could potentially lead to conversations in the future, but the maps can be used to help keep the potential agricultural income of the land in mind when seeking space for projects.
The classification on the map was based off of the 1984 Alberta Farmland Manual, using digitized fields for assessment purposes.