At the Council meeting held on Tuesday, April 11, 2017, Mayor Melissa Blake served notice of her intent to bring forward the motion to dismantle the Wood Buffalo Recovery Committee (WBRC).
Although several delegates raised their concerns at the meeting held on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 council approved a motion to bring Recovery Committee work back to the Municipalities desk as of June 11, 2017.
This comes 21 weeks earlier than the original plan to dissemble to WBRC on October 31, 2017.
Residents noted that they have forged relationships with WBRC members at Here for You public information sessions and put pressure on council asking which of them will attend those meetings.
With it being an election year, Mayor Blake saw it best that city council take all matters under their own hands to further prepare future city council members of all the tasks at hand.
Recognizing all the incredible hard work the WBRC had done Mayor Blake told Councillors that it was time for them to take recovery matters into their own hands.
“This is a time I feel confident in the abilities of each of you to take up that mantel and that responsibility,
and furthermore I find it pretty important to do as we approach what this fall will yield, which is new election,
and making sure that people understand what it is that they are expected to do as they are elected to Council.
So that’s my comments on this one, it is absolutely no slight to any member of that Committee or the work that they have done,
I think they have done outstanding work and that we have learned so much together along the way and I have a great appreciation for what they have done, but I think it is time that we bring it back to our domain,” said Mayor Blake.
The WBRC is now required to develop a plan for any outstanding Committee work to be transitioned to Council.
The Recovery Task Force will remain intact and members will be required to transition recovery work back to the RMWB in a feasible time frame.
The next WBRC meeting will be on Wednesday, May 10, 2017.
