Province decides investigation of council and administration not necessary

Minister of Municipal Affairs Shaye Anderson has determined that an inquiry into the affairs of Chestermere City Council and administration is not warranted.
“We are very pleased that the Province found no basis for investigating Chestermere City Council or the administration as a result of the petition,” said Chestermere Mayor Patricia Matthews.
The decision comes after a petition was submitted to then Minister Danielle Larivee in March 2016 requesting that the Minister investigate the operations of city staff and council in relation to Chestermere Utilities Inc. (CUI) and the utility rate-setting process.
Since the petition was filed, council has undertaken a review process and implement the recommendations from the third-party consultant.
The official decision on the review by Minister Anderson was delivered to Mayor Patricia Matthews in a letter Feb. 17.
In it the Minister wrote “I am satisfied that this response will improve the utility rate-setting process and substantially address the key concerns that led to the petition.”
The minister asked to be appraised of the city’s progress in fully implementing the recommendations in the CUI review report.
Mayor Matthews said that both staff and council took the concerns raised in the petition seriously and have been working to hard to improve both the city’s communication with residents and the utility rate-setting process.
“We’re really proud of the way we serve residents here, we’re proud of the work that we do,” she said.
Both administration and council are happy to see this process completed so that they can focus on their work for the city without the review hanging over them.
“We’ve got lots of initiatives already underway for 2017 that are going to make our city even better,” said Matthews.