Thompson’s mayor and council selected the chairs and vice-chairs of the city’s standing committees for the next year at the fourth and final organizational meeting for the current group of councillors on Nov. 3.
Committee chairs were appointed by Mayor Colleen Smook, who installed Coun. Brian Lundmark as the deputy mayor, Coun. Les Ellsworth as human resources chair, Coun. Braden McMurdo as public works and infrastructure chair, Coum. Jeff Fountain as recreation and community services committee chair and Coun. Andre Proulx as development review committee chair.
As deputy mayor, Lundmark is automatically the chair of the legislative and finance committee under council’s organizational bylaw. The mayor is also a member of all committees. Vice-chairs were nominated by their fellow councillors and votes held in cases where there were more candidates than positions.
Ellsworth and Coun. Kathy Valentino were nominated for the legislative and finance committee, the only standing committee with two vice-chairs, by Lundmark.
Valentino was also nominated as vice-chair of the recreation and community services committee by McMurdo while Coun. Earl Colbourne was acclaimed as vice-chair for the development review committee. Colbourne was also the winner of one of two vice-chair elections, for the human resources committee, while Coun. Duncan Wong was elected over Proulx as vice-chair of public works.
Council also ratified the appointment of members to act as signing authorities and to the board of revision, taxi commission and grievance and building standards committees. Many of those appointments are automatically assigned to the chair and vice-chairs of the committees under whose jurisdiction they fall.
In her comments before announcing her appointments for deputy mayor and committee chairs, Smook recounted some of the challenges that council has faced in the first three years of their term, including the closure of the Norplex Pool, a fire at Princeton Towers that left the north building uninhabitable and the loss of council member Judy Kolada. The positive developments included the creation fo the Thompson Community Safety and Wellness Strategy, the re-establishment of StreetReach North, increased library funding recently announced by the provincial government and $1.2 million that the city received to support affordable housing, which has been granted to the Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre for a shovel-ready project, as well as millions more for road, water and sewer line work that the city received from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
Council is currently in the process of negotiating a new grant-in-lieu agreement with Vale Manitoba Operations, which provides a set amount of money to the city per year instead of paying property taxes.
Smook also emphasized respect amongst councillors and toward others with whom they work as they head into the final year of their four-year term.
“I hope this last year that we can return to being a respectful committed council,” she said. “We have to respect ourselves, we have to respect each other. We have to respect our city administration, our staff but, most of all, our citizens of Thompson. They have expectations of our behaviour and it’s up to us to step up to the plate.”
