OUTLOOK — The town council of Outlook held a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday night, April 23. Present was all of Council: Donna Smith, Kyle McLeod, Sharon Bruce, Andy Long, Kevin Grotheim, and Guy Derdall, as well as Mayor Ryan Husband, CAO Kevin Trew, and Assistant Administrator Rachel Sillers.
The meeting was broadcast live on the Town of Outlook's official Facebook page.
A number of topics and items were discussed, including the following highlights.
Bylaws
Council discussed Bylaw 03 (2025) Agreement to Form a Joint Health Committee as it was set for its second and possible third reading. Specifically, the bylaw is to form a health committee with the neighboring RMs of Rudy and Fertile Valley.
The second reading of the bylaw was passed, but Council elected not to pass a third reading for the time being.
Reports of Administration, Staff and/or Committees Requiring Decision
Discussing equipment disposals, the town has tendered out a number of items that had not been in use for some time. Such items included trucks, a mobile street sweeper, and a rescue vehicle. Altogether, there were 41 bids that came in for the 9 items that were available, showing that there was substantial interest from the public.
Council acknowledged and approved the sales of the items.
Mayor and Councillor’s Forum
Discussing the recent SUMA convention, the reactions around the room were that there were both positives and negatives about it this year, feeling that the event's new seating arrangement may have limited participants in one regard as it related to talking to many people, with Councillor Grotheim saying that, "You couldn't just table-jump if you wanted to", feeling that this sort of conversational vibe in the room was almost "non-existent". Councillor Bruce shared her view that the new way that things were done gave more respect to speakers because those in attendance were essentially 'forced' to pay attention.
Those in the room discussed the convention further, agreeing that the event was something of a mixed bag with both positive and negative aspects.
Unfinished Business
Council moved to a discussion on recycling in the community; specifically, a shift to a producer-funded model of household recycling. SK Recycles, the not-for-profit organization responsible for management and recycling of household packaging and paper, was given the go-ahead to take over residential recycling in the province, and they're developing what's being called 'Phase 2 Working Group', which focuses on towns and regional waste authorities.
With Loraas doing residential recycling and business recycling, this new development with SK Recycles will not include business recycling. It was said that any sort of hiccups that may result in this new partnership will hopefully be worked out.
More news on these new developments surrounding recycling in Outlook is expected to be known and publicized in the weeks ahead.
New Business
Touching on the town's social media policies, which included both Council and town employees and had gone largely untouched since 2020, CAO Trew explained how it has been updated and modified in the time that has since passed.
Trew noted that he hasn't had to enforce anything related to employees posting anything on social media, aside from a few conversations here and there about "relevant" posts and material. The policy was passed by Council.
A more Council-specific section of the policy was then discussed, with thoughts from around the room sharing their feelings on it.
"You have a higher duty of care to the Town if you're part of Council or you're an employee," said Councillor Bruce. "You have a higher duty of care to how you represent the community, and I don't think it's unreasonable to be expected to behave better."
"If staff have already signed this, then why wouldn't we set the example and sign it ourselves?" said Councillor Long.
Councillor Smith made the motion that the policy be approved, which was carried. Councillors Derdall and Grotheim did not raise their hands in support of the motion.
Switching topics by discussing the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, or CHIF, Trew touched on how the Town had applied for the program's first stream of funding, but had not heard back anything on that front. Still, with the program now accepting applications for the second stream, Trew explained that he has been working on an application that would specifically target the work that will be carried out on the town's lagoon project. With Outlook competing against other larger urban areas for this somewhat 'limited' funding, at least as compared to other funding streams, the Town may have its work cut out for them.
Discussion was had around the room on where any such funding could be and/or should be directed, as well as what projects could help the Town generate more funds in order to help them secure more funding in the future.
Councillor McLeod made a motion for the Town to apply for this second stream of CHIF funding, which was carried.
Ending the meeting, Council moved their talks to in-camera to discuss employee compensation and commercial lot offers.
CAO Report (dated April 9)
Prepared by Kevin Trew
Human Resources:
• There are no permanent employees on disability leave, as a nod to our strategic plan, we are tracking days without accidents or injury involving staff members.
• The community development department has been advertising, interviewing and filling seasonal positions for the Van Raay and Community Pool as well as other programming.
• We welcomed a new member to Team Outlook in March, Kelsey joins us in the Recreation Department and has proven to be a valuable addition already. We have heard from Sara that she will be returning to work for us after her maternity/parental leave has ended in June.
• We welcome a young man from OHS named Silas who is working with us at the office as a part of the OHS work study program. He is at our office on Thursdays and he is interested in the legal aspects of the CAO job. He is currently reviewing the bylaws and we are hoping he will be able to help draft and/or amend a couple bylaws in the coming months. I expect he will be joining us at a Council meeting in May to present a bylaw.
Policy and Procedural Items:
• Council approved the strategic plan update and we are now implementing it across departments tying a lot of what we do to the Strat Plan.
• Assessment Notices have been sent out, so the roll is currently open with the ability for property owners to review other property assessed values and appeal their value if they see fit. This was a revaluation year which means that every property was reassessed on paper and every property owner should receive an assessment notice. Many residential properties saw a reduced assessed value this year, with the total residential assessed value across the Town going down slightly, commercial and industrial property values saw an increase. This will result in a slight shift in the tax burden, we can use tax tools to mitigate this if Council should see fit to do so. We expect taxes to be levied in late May/early June and, with a budgeted increase in municipal taxes and a change in education property tax mill rates, everyone will see a different tax bill in 2025.
• SAMA has informed us that the Town of Outlook will be reassessed physically in 2025 for the 2026 calendar year, so we are expecting that next year there will be yet another change. SAMA physical assessments usually occur every 10 to 15 years.
• The Outlook-Rudy fire hall build is launching immediately, with the award of the tenders to local contactors happening this week, we are very excited to see this come to fruition in 2025.
Successes this Month:
• Shout out to the staff at the Jim Kook Recplex, this year’s rink season has been long and has had its challenges; the kitchen in particular was a concern early on, I am very proud of the team there, we made key changes midseason that will serve us well going forward. I was privileged to witness a few of the Provincial playoff games as well as league games and celebrations and the staff really stepped up in these instances, collaborating with managers, coaches and volunteers. Congratulations Team Outlook!
Learning Opportunities/Capacity Development:
• We are working hard with builders and developers to support residential builds in the Town of Outlook, the Housing Accelerator Fund is here for us to help lighten the load. We have a lot of plans to build in Outlook this summer and we have still identified a couple of residential lots for infill to meet that need.
We are very grateful for the builders and developers who are trying to meet the need and we are hoping that those who are able have reached out to us to see how we might help.
Current Unfinished Projects:
• Subdivisions Projects
o 2024-2025 Highway Commercial and Residential Subdivision – We have a draft subdivision plan which includes subdividing the sports grounds as Municipal Reserve, establishment of an extension of Tollefson Drive to the east into the sportsgrounds as well as residential lots on Mann Street and dividing up lots along the highway, this will be presented to Council in early April.
o College South Residential – No update at this time.
• Sales of Commercial Lots – we have had a bit of interest in commercial lots at the Highway Commercial area (build in 2026) as well as in the Railyard Subdivision. (build in 2025). We are hopeful these come to fruition and that there will be public announcement soon.
• 2025 Capital Works plans – we have an aggressive capital works plan which includes the start of the storm water retention pond along the Highway and the Fire Hall build, pavement, cemetery configuration, storm sewer replacement on Franklin Street from Sask Avenue to Railway and completion of the raw water intake project to name the larger projects, 2025 will continue to be a busy construction year in Outlook.
