Only a week into its existence the Wood Buffalo Recovery Committee submitted multiple recommendations to council Tuesday night, all of which were a surprise to residents as they were not on the agenda before the start of the meeting.
The aim of all the recommendations is to launch the recovery and rebuild process as swiftly as possible.
Applications are currently open for the six public positions on the committee.
Staffing and accommodations
Council approved reassigning as many as 80 current employees at the RMWB to the Recovery Task Force, the administration team that will work under the WBRC on rebuilding the community. That approval also means the employees would be moved to the fifth floor of the Jubilee Centre, which is just wrapping up renovations, so as to be close to their provincial counterparts next door. Councillor Keith McGrath explained the department will have an open door policy and will work to serve the residents working to rebuild their own homes and those of their neighbours.
Any expenses above and beyond normal operations and directly related to wildfire recovery will be submitted to the province which has signalled those costs would be covered under the Disaster Recovery Program which sees the provincial and federal governments cover the bulk of the costs of recovery.
Assessments about the need to backfill positions left vacant by moving an employee to the Recovery Task Force will be done periodically.
Landfill changes
The landfill will now be open 24/7 to allow contractors and homeowners alike to bring household waste and debris to the landfill at all hours. This will help avoid a backlog during cleanup and rebuilding. As well, for the time being the fee at the dump is waived.
Council also approved restricting access to ‘notorious’ illegal dump sites, like Tower Road, to reduce costs of cleanup and to keep the community clean and safe. It will look at continuing that restricted access longterm in the interest of making the community even stronger than it was before the wildfire.
People taking part in legitimate activities, like walking, running, cycling, riding quads, or snowmobiling will not be prevented from accessing the areas.
Access Roads
Council has also tasked administration with exploring the possibility of opening new service access roads for construction traffic in Abasand, Beacon Hill, and Waterways and request that the costs of opening such roads be covered by the upper levels of government. Administration will look at whether those roads can be kept open long-term or made into permanent roads to connect to a possible bypass road at a later date.
By-laws
The first reading was held for three by-laws presented by the WBRC that will look at amending the noise by-law to allow recovery and clean up work to operate 24/7; amending the utility rate by-law to allow the RMWB to charge non-residents and non-local companies more to dump waste at the landfill than local companies and residents; and amending the land use by-law to charge non-local companies and residents more for development and hauling permits. These by-law amendments will have public hearings and second readings at a later council meeting.
