Morinville Council Briefs 

by Colin Smith 

The following Council briefs are from the July 6 regular meeting of Council. 

Police Open House 

The Morinville RCMP detachment will be taking part in an open house at the Fire Hall on October 5. 

A multi-agency partnership, the aim of the event is to receive community input on 2025/2026 policing priorities. 

Other RCMP community engagement activities coming up later this year were reported by administration to council at its regular meeting Tuesday, July 9. 

These comprise a frauds and scams educational event in September, with the location and date to be announced; a Pop with a Cop Q & A session for youth November 14 at the MLC; and the Candy Cane Check Stop on December 12 at the Town Hall. 

The RCMP has also been invited to attend the Bike Rodeo, Rock the Rails and Lite Up the Nite. 

Condolences on the passing of prominent resident 

Mayor Simon Boersma expressed his condolences to the family and friends of the late O’Neil Chevalier as one of the council protocol items. 

Chevalier, the second-generation owner of Morinville Home Hardware, passed away on July 4 at the age of 84. 

The mayor described Chevalier as a cherished family and community member. 

“A lot of lives were touched by O’Neil,” he said. 

The family has long been a part of the Morinville community, Boersma added. 

“It has seen it grow and grow with them, which is pretty amazing.” 

CAO Evaluation 

The annual performance evaluation of Morinville CAO Naleen Narayan took place at the meeting on Tuesday, July 9. 

The closed-door evaluation session, lasting just under two hours, included presentations by the CAO Recruitment and Evaluation Committee and consultants Keldar Leadership. 

The closed session of council was said to be justified under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, section 17 Disclosure harmful to personal privacy, section 19 Confidential Evaluations, and section 24 Advice from Officials. 

Council also went into closed session to discuss a land matter, under FOIP section 16 Disclosure harmful to Third-Party Business, section 24 Advice from Officials and section 25 Disclosure harmful to Public Body. 

Indoor or outdoor pool 

Council has directed administration to look into the possibility of getting a third party to build and operate a swimming pool in Morinville. 

It passed a motion put forward by Councillor Scott Richardson that council direct administration to work with recreation and legal practitioners to develop a partnership and incentive model that would facilitate the development of an indoor or outdoor pool for budget deliberations. 

“The idea is to think outside of the box,” Richardson said. “The best case scenario would be something where a third party comes in and says we’ll build a pool and we’ll operate it.” 

Council remuneration committee 

Members of the Council Communication Review Committee have now been appointed. 

The committee was established in April by bylaw to provide community oversight of town council pay and benefits. 

The committee members, appointed by CAO Naleen Narayan, are Fred Bahr, Brian Brost, Kelvin Colliar, Rainer Cubos and Kelvin Kuzyk. 

Administration is now working with the members to set an initial meeting date for the committee.