CUI holds annual community meeting

Chestermere Utilities Inc. (CUI) Held their second annual Community Meeting at the Chestermere Regional Recreation Centre May 11.
“I think it went really well,” said CUI Chief Executive Officer Leigh-Anne Palter.
23 people attended the meeting including Chestermere’s Mayor Patricia Matthews and City Councilors Stu Hutchinson and Christopher Steeves.
Palter said that while 2016 had its challenges, such as work done by both the city and CUI to resolve resident concerns, there were also successes.
Chief among these is the CUI’s flawless safety record. The CUI had no lost time injuries last year.
“Safety always comes first,” she said.
According to the Workers Compensation Board, solid waste collection is one of the more hazardous occupations in the province.
“It’s one of the most dangerous classifications, said Palter.
To make their safety record even more impressive, the CUI brought several new staff members on board during the past year.
Other highlights from the past year included operational savings, the addition of new board members and the reorganization of roles within the CUI.
“Those are huge benefits that will accrue to the organization well into the future,” said Palter.
Looking to the future, the CUI will be focusing on creating stability within the CUI.
Once that is done, Palter is looking forward to exploring new strategic opportunities.
“To the extent that we’ve got a stable system that…is meeting all of the regulatory requirements and will operate safely and reliably to serve the customers then we can switch our energy in to some of these other more strategic opportunities,” she said.
To that end, there were several suggestions from the attendees of services or opportunities for the CUI to investigate.
“They had great suggestions,” said Palter.
Some ideas include exploring regional partnerships and alternatives to the current solid waste process which see’s CUI take garbage collected in Chestermere to three different third party processors.
“Could we take control of our own destiny by doing something different,” she said.
Suggestions included looking at ways to produce energy from waste or developing a regional land fill proposal.