The Town of Vermilion is still undecided on the renewal of their Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) membership.
Council had the chance to voice their opinions on the yearly membership with FCM at the Feb. 4 meeting.
FCM advocates for local communities to ensure their citizens’ needs are reflected in federal policies and programs.
The cost to be a member of the group is $1,169.10 per year after tax.
FCM is a group made up of over 2,000 cities and communities across Canada. They have a direct line to the federal government.
“It is a very large Canadian organization that has a direct line to the Government of Canada. Their efforts bring in … it’s a gas tax, there’s a percentage of the taxes that come back through the federal government, supporting municipalities,” said Coun. Robert Pulyk. “It was for the effort of FCM that worked hard to get some additional funding for municipalities.”
Deputy Mayor Joshua Rayment spoke against rejoining FCM.
“I feel like FCM adds very little value to our community on the whole. I feel like their representation of the eastern half of Canada is at a very, very high level. When you read through their website and all the things they do, they’re so focused on climate initiatives and introducing diversity into politics. I don’t feel like they accurately represent small communities,” said Rayment.
He said this is not something he was interested in being a part of.
“I think this is something I’m personally not interested in funding any longer. I feel enough people on the East Coast can fund this and we can continue to keep the money where it’s needed, and that’s here,” said Rayment.
Coun. Robert Snow agreed with the deputy mayor regarding the lack of relevancy FCM has for the town.
“We actually had a discussion about which conferences we were going to be going to and we actually talked about how the FCM wasn’t as relevant to us in our region or in our province. I kind of agree with Deputy Mayor Rayment. I’m not sure what the value is there,” said Snow.
Council voted on postponing the motion to rejoin and bring it back at a future council meeting. Council also requested additional information on who their local FCM rep is and to get a 10-minute presentation on the group as a sort of sales pitch.
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