Chestermere City Council tabled the combative sports bylaw, pending review.
City of Chestermere Legislative Administrator Kallen Morrison brought forward the bylaw for third reading at the March 7 council meeting.
“After the last council meeting, we went over the various changes that council wanted to see,” Morrison said. “A concern of council was where does council get the authority to do this.”
Council authorized councillor Shannon Dean, City Director Cam Wong, and other staffers to further discuss the bylaw with the sponsor, and legal representative, and provide more clarity to council at the upcoming meeting on March 14.
After the bylaw is reviewed by city representatives, it will be forwarded to the city’s legal representatives for review.
“This is time sensitive and needs to move forward,” Dean said. “We’re getting all of this done so the third reading is clean.”
Mayor Jeff Colvin added, “We have to be really careful as to who is doing what because the city can’t get caught up in something it’s not supposed to be doing.”
Alex Halat brought forward the bylaw in February to council, as a way to bring professional boxing to Chestermere, and allow Chestermere’s Olympus Boxing Club to host large-scale events.
After working with youth in the community and seeing more youth wanting to get involved in boxing, Halat was inspired to bring forward the bylaw.
Under the bylaw, the event promoter could host events anywhere in the city and would be responsible for security and insurance, with no legal liability for the city.
“Council for the City of Chestermere deems it desirable to establish a Combative Sports Commission to sanction and monitor combative sports events conducted within the boundaries of the municipality,” the bylaw said.
The bylaw also states under the Municipal Government Act, members, officers, employees, volunteers, and officials of a commission established are not liable for anything said, done, or omitted to be in good faith in the performance.
An event permit that is issued by the commission does not act as a city event agreement, and if needed, the event promoter must acquire an event permit before conducting the event.
“One important thing to note, is the city director does have ultimate authority over events that can go on, the commission does have some authority, but they act more as a recommendation to the city director to go over recommendations the city director should be approving,” Morrison said.
He also explained that council was concerned about the $2 million insurance liability, but after research, it is consistent with the city’s events and festivals policy.
“A flow chart might be helpful to identify who is buying what and what order everything goes in,” City Councillor Blaine Funk said. “I don’t know if it’s our job to lay out exactly what the full overarching process is, but it would probably be helpful for people since there are so many fees and licenses with similar names.”
The bylaw review will be presented to council again on March 14, before the third reading.
