Eight weeks. That's how long Westlock County councillors will wait until they'll find out whether they'll get a full Municipal Affairs inspection following the completion of the ministry's initial review earlier this month.
Eight weeks.
That's how long Westlock County councillors will wait until they'll find out whether they'll get a full Municipal Affairs inspection following the completion of the ministry's initial review earlier this month.
Interim CAO Pat Vincent said representatives from the province concluded interviews with staff and council Aug. 31 to Sept. 1 and council now awaits a verdict from Municipal Affairs minister Danielle Larivee.
'Council is very anxious to get going on the process with the request in June and then finally getting a response here from the minister that she was going to move ahead with it," Vincent said.
'Now that's all transpired and it's a game of wait and see."
The initial inspection was commissioned by the provincial government following council's request for a review of its operations on June 28 - the first stage in the review process.
Staff that conducted the interviews will now compile a report, which Larivee will review and will use to decide whether a full-scale review is needed.
Vincent confirmed that Municipal Affairs spoke with all of council and members of county staff, but former staffers were not involved.
By all accounts Vincent said the initial interviews went well.
'The responses I've got back from members of council is they had sufficient time to sit with the two staff and go through the issues," he said.
'The [Municipal Affairs] staff had some questions as well as the opportunity to provide other information to them as part of that interview process."
Reeve Don Savage also said he was pleased with the preliminary inspection process.
'It went very nicely. The two ladies that came from Municipal Affairs, they're very good at their job, they know where they're going," Savage said.
'It was the first time I've been involved in anything like that but I found it very pleasant and it was a great. There was no intimidation of any sort."
Savage said with the process now in the bag, it becomes a waiting game.
'That's such a long time. When you talk weeks it doesn't sounds like a long time," Savage said.
'We've just got to wait."
While council is hopeful to get a response back sooner than later, Vincent said although a six- to eight-week window was provided, they were told not to hold their breath.
'The department has been busy with a number of requests they've been dealing with ... by the time it goes through the system it does take a while," he said.
'[We're] anticipating and hoping that time-frame will be met."
Should the minister recommend a full-scale inspection the job will be tendered out to a third party. From there, the process would take as long as nine months to complete.
