A motion to endorse Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers for election to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Board of Directors has returned to council chambers.
The previous motion was missing language required by FCM.
“FCM does require in the motion we stipulate the city is prepared to pay the cost of Mayor Aalbers if he is elected,” said city manager Dion Pollard.
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The motion indicates if elected, Aalbers would sit on the board of directors from March 2025 until June 2028.
“In chatting with the mayor, he indicated this initial term would expire in June 2025, it’s an annual term of one year,” said Coun. Michael Diachuk.
City clerk, Marilyn Lavoie, said the motion meets FCM’s needs in the requirements.
FCM also confirmed Aalbers would have to rerun in June 2025 in order to be elected until the 2028 period.
Coun. Jim Taylor requested information as to how much Aalbers’ involvement would cost the city.
“There’s five meetings a year, two of them would be online, one would be in Ottawa every year, another meeting would be where the conference is in, which the cost is neutral for the city. Generally Mayor Aalbers attends that conference every year, so his costs would be included there,” said Pollard.
“We did estimate between $2,000-$3,000 between flight and hotels that would be in addition to Mayor Aalbers’ budget. He does budget for one trip to Ottawa outside of FCM each year, outside of the conference.”
Pollard says the city is okay with the budget they have.
“The money we do have, we feel we’re reasonably comfortable within the budget we have,” he explained.
Council passed the motion to have Aalbers stand for election of the FCM board with Taylor voting in opposition of the motion.
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