Sign up for the paNOW newsletter

COUNCIL ROUND-UP: Council approves new acting city manager

Sep 24, 2013 | 6:27 AM

Prince Albert city council voted in favour of appointing Chris Cvik as its acting city manager until mid-October.

Mayor Greg Dionne had appointed Cvik to be the acting city manager temporarily until the council vote could be held after council “removed” Robert Cotterill from the position earlier this month.

Dionne said, ordinarily, only the city manager has the right to appoint the acting city manager, unless they are no longer in that position, and then the decision goes to council.

Cvik’s tenure as acting city manager will run until Oct. 15.

“At this point, during this period of time, council will have the opportunity to discuss what they’re going to do with that position, and how they’re going to fill it, and we’re going to move forward and we’ll move forward from that date.”

Cvik is also the director of corporate services.

Reports to examine changing department in charge of bylaw enforcement

Right now, bylaw enforcement is under the purview of the Prince Albert Police Service.

But a series of reports commissioned by city council during Monday evening’s meeting will examine the impact of leaving it within the police service, or moving it to the public works department or the fire department. One of the reports will also look at the possibility of contracting bylaw enforcement out to Commissionaires – a security services company.

The motion to request the reports was put forward by Coun. Charlene Miller, but other councillors welcomed a discussion about bylaw enforcement generally.

“We have never, ever, sat together as a council and discussed the role of bylaw in our community,” Coun. Ted Zurakowski said. “Never. We haven’t done that.

“So, I think that’s the first step, to sit down and discuss what we believe, not the police commission, believe the intent of bylaw is in our community.”

He said that they can’t just “pull it and put it over here,” but the costs and the role of bylaw have to be examined.

Council approves revised response to Shore Gold EIS

City council also voted in favour of approving the city’s response to Shore Gold’s Environment Impact Statement (EIS).

The response is outlined in a report by Meyers Norris Penny, which calls for the creation of a “value-added diamond industry” in the city.

In mid-August, Shore Gold announced that its EIS would be open to public comments for a 30-day period.

And while this is the next phase in the process of the proposed Star-Orion project, Dionne said they can’t answer when the project will come to fruition.

“Unfortunately today, we can’t answer when. Because Shore Gold is a non-functioning entity. They have no senior management now.”

If the project goes ahead, it will be located in the Fort à la Corne Provincial Forest, outside of Prince Albert.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames