WATCH: The Morning After with Mayor Maureen Miller

Michael Menzies dropped in to visit Town of St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller on Tuesday.

They discussed the opening of the Tourist Information Centre at the UFO Landing Pad, as well as the shop inside which showcases work by local artisans. Bill 20 remains a hot topic with Miller voicing frustration with the proposed provincial legislation. Municipal issues and upcoming events are also discussed.

 

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Note: Transcript is autogenerated and as such there may be spelling and grammatical errors. 

 

Michael Menzies: Well, it’s, uh, yet another edition of the morning after I’m Michael Menzies. We’re live in the town of St. Paul at the UFO Landing Pad. And please be joined once again by the mayor of the town, Maureen Miller. Maureen, uh, great to see you once again. Beautiful weather. How are you doing?

Maureen Miller: I’m doing great. Isn’t it a fantastic day?

Michael Menzies: Yes, it really is. It’s been, uh, you know, quite the interesting, uh, start to summer, obviously dry at times, but now there’s been a bit of moisture. I’m sure that’s been something that’s been on a lot of politicians’ minds here lately. The moisture specifically actually.

Maureen Miller: Yeah, we were quite concerned, obviously with the wildfires in the, in the region ourselves. Uh, but to get that moisture, I mean, really we’re an agricultural community. I’m sure the farmers are quite happy to have it, and it just took that pressure off, um, the Red Zones and, um, I think, uh, now the gardeners, it’s warm today, so I things can happen today.

Michael Menzies: Yes, there’s, there’s heat in the sunshine and it’s, uh, a great, um, welcome to spring summer, if we are there yet.

Maureen Miller: That’s right. Well, uh, as we coordinate these videos, sometimes we do them at town hall, but sometimes they’ll text you, Hey, you know, days like today, do you want to do it on location? You picked the UFO landing pad for a specific reason. Tell me why.

Michael Menzies: I did two reasons actually, but, um, uh, we open up the UFO landing pad all summer, starting last week, um, for, it’s our, um, tourism center. But within the UFO landing pad is local artisans, uh, wares that you can purchase local. Um, they’re local works. Yeah, it’s a great opportunity to come and see what’s going on.

Maureen Miller: Um, they’re definitely able, we’ve got some lawnmowers going on in the back that does happen when the rain stops as well, but we’ll get over that. Um, uh, so the landing pad is a great opportunity to just stop in town and come in and, and see what our local artisans have. Um, I also chose that, I thought I could see a beeline down the street here, but our rec department, uh, parks and rec have, um, done, uh, laid up all their banners. So our volunteers actually, um, paint these banners through the winter. This year’s theme is stained glass. They are phenomenal. Wow. Phenomenal. So the whole Main Street is lined with volunteers work, um, stained glass. Well, they’re painted.

Michael Menzies: Um, and the pots went up for the flowers. And this year’s theme for is orange for the, uh, champions for change the, um, the Communities in Bloom project. So, um, if you’re picking up flowers and you wanna beautify your front yard, orange is a nice color this year.

Maureen Miller: Yeah. And, um, it’s always great to put us at a national level. We get a lot of feedback from communities in bloom of what our communities can do differently. Um, how we, uh, not just beautify, but create a community that, um, people wanna live in, work in.

Michael Menzies: Yeah, no doubt. I always appreciate that feedback. I think that’s something, you know, that the town of St. Paul does really well. I think it’s something across the Lakeland that I think there, there’s a real pride in ownership when it comes to, you know, your yards and then, you know, beautifying these areas and, you know, having seen these, these little touches like with those, with the stained glass, I think it’s wow, what a, what a great feature to have in your community.

Maureen Miller: Yeah. And I don’t know whether everybody realizes they’re just volunteers that painted all those. So when you head back today, just, uh, have a cruise down and have a look at those. They’re beautiful. They’re stunning.

Michael Menzies: Yeah. We’ll, uh, we’ll make sure, we’ll grab a couple pictures of those before I, uh, head out. Uh, let’s get political a little bit. Okay. Let’s, let’s get political. I’ll walk into that, you know, uh, bill 20, bill 20, We’ll launch right into it. This has been the provincial bill, uh, often discussed here. Table do bill 20 with nothing in it. Sorry, just, just making sure we’re the same one.

Maureen Miller: Absolutely. You know, there’s been some changes. I sort of put them in air quotes because some, some don’t believe that there’s really been much change from what was originally proposed. Controversial, more control. It seems, uh, for the province put on municipalities, kinda, and I’ve got the sense we’re talking with, you know, other local leaders, you know, they don’t like to see this, that there isn’t a lot of support for this thinking, okay, there’s gonna be more oversight on what we do as a municipality. How do you feel about what’s going on here with Bill 20?

Michael Menzies: Well, personally, so, um, as, as an elected official, I appreciate being in arm’s length of the government. Um, we have no political affiliations. We come into our council chamber, uh, with an open mind. That’s our job. Um, to come in at a public meeting, open-minded, uh, with an opportunity to have an opinion changed. And, um, when you are now overreached by declaring basically your political affiliation, I have to work with whatever government is there. Um, as a municipality, they’re expecting that of me. So, um, that to me seems a little bit of an overreach in compared to what, what we have to do at a municipal level, uh, within, um, for our constituents. So that’s a challenge for me.

Maureen Miller: Um, the other challenge that I have is elected officials can actually refrain from voting if it’s a perceived conflict or an actual conflict. We already have that in the MGA of how that looks.

Michael Menzies: And, and, and for those that haven’t seen it, you know, sort of an action, it’s declared beforehand that this is, I have to declare conflict of interest. They leave the room. The discussion then unfolds on that matter.

Maureen Miller: Yes, exactly. So now you can declare based on the new bill, a conflict, um, could be perceived. It could just be a contentious issue that you’re choosing not to participate in. And I’m not elected to do that. I have to make the tough decisions whether I like them or not. I have to come in with the information I have. So that, that is a huge concern to me. Um, I just don’t know how it’s gonna change the environment within the council chamber. Um, so yeah, there’s a few things within that definitely that has me worried.

Michael Menzies: And of course, it was tabled with additional information under extenuating circumstances. The government already had that reach to do so, so to now put it under extenuating circumstances, I would hope they could step in. Um, and now that onus is on municipalities and, um, I don’t know, there’s just some somewhat uneasiness.

Maureen Miller: Yeah. Um, and to have it passed through so quickly, I understand there’s timeframes because it had, it would have to follow, fall, have to follow into the next election, but I don’t think, given the feedback that the municipalities have given to the government,

Michael Menzies: Have they given you a why?

Maureen Miller: No, that would be great if there was a situation that we could say, okay, we need to correct that because that, but we already have seen in this last many months of the opportunities that the provincial government has had to do to come in and make, uh, corrections in other municipalities when they’ve had to do that. So, um, it’s already done. The Municipal Government Act. Yes. It covers that. So, um, yeah, the overreach has been well overused in this, uh, in this bill, I think in language, but it does make, uh, small little communities like ourselves a a challenge when really I have to, I have to respond to the needs of the community.

Michael Menzies: Alright. Okay. Uh, let’s get into a little bit more of the municipal level here. There, there was just a little song, this was not from, uh, yesterday’s meeting, but from, uh, a couple weeks ago trying to, uh, I guess get the proper zoning for this, uh, was it 57th Street? Is that right?

Maureen Miller: Yeah, 57th Street story is what we call it. Yeah. Uh, that the, that whole end of property of town was, um, annexed, I guess into the town of St. Paul from the county many years back. And along that stretch of land, there’s everything from residential to, um, um, like many businesses along that I could name, name, name, quite a few quite easily, but they’re all mixed. It’s a mixed, mixed bag