Richmond’s Warden would like the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities to make changes to its annual fall conference.
At the regular monthly meeting last night in Arichat, Warden Amanda Mombourquette said she and District 2 Councillor Michael Diggdon attended the NSFM Fall Conference from Nov. 7 to 10 in Halifax.
The conference included the NSFM Annual General Meeting which elected a new board, the warden said before thanking Port Hawkesbury Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton for her time as president.
While there were “excellent sessions” which offered a lot of information on housing, diversity, and innovation, and the conference is a “valuable networking opportunity,” Mombourquette said in her recommendations to NSFM board members that she would like to see it shortened because it takes elected officials out of their municipalities for a “very long period of time.”
The warden also recommended that the conference include at least one visit to the Nova Scotia Legislature which would be good for provincial-municipal relationships.
Richmond County Warden Amanda Mombourquette (contributed)
Because Richmond’s travel policy dictates those who registered must attend at least 80 per cent of the conference to be reimbursed, another recommendation from Mombourquette was shared registration, with one elected official attending the first two days of the conference and a second going to the final two days.
Diggdon suggested a change to the travel policy that would be more lenient about the requirement to attend a minimum of 80 per cent of the conference.
District 5 Councillor Brent Sampson noted that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual conference typically ends on the weekend which can help avoid those with jobs during the work week having the dip into their vacation time to attend, as the warden was forced to do.
While council could look at referring this to the Bylaw and Policy Advisory Committee, District 3 Councillor Melanie Sampson said the NSFM requires that each person has to register for the whole conference.
If the NSFM agrees to change registration to make it more inclusive which she agrees with since she found it hard to attend due to her work commitments, the district 2 councillor said they can take another look at the travel policy through the bylaw and policy committee.
The warden added they will wait for the response from the NSFM board to her recommendations.