Springfield councillors host town hall meetings

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This article was published 04/02/2024 (466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A packed house of close to 100 people filled the room at the Oakbank United Church on Tuesday as RM of Springfield residents attended the first of two town hall meetings hosted by Ward 2 Coun. Andy Kuczynski and Ward 3 Coun. Mark Miller.

The second meeting was scheduled to take place in Cooks Creek on Wednesday.

The meeting was billed as an opportunity for residents to speak out on a variety of issues including Sio Silica, Oakbank rec centre, budgets, the proposed water treatment plan, the proposed McDonald’s restaurant in Oakbank, and major housing developments in Dugald and Oakbank.

However, as the meeting began the councillors told the crowd they would not discuss McDonald’s or the Dugald development upon advice by legal council.

Mark Miller told the crowd they welcomed any input including that which may be critical of them.

“We’re not always right, we make mistakes,” he said.

He added that they want to ensure everything is public that possibly can be, saying both he and Kuczynski have been advocating for events like this throughout their tenure.

In a joint position statement issued the day of the first meeting, the councillors said the public must be heard and listened to.

“As councillors, we believe the public’s viewpoints, concerns and suggestions are integral for a positive democratic process and should, at very least, be broadly heard via question period at council meetings, public hearings, and public engagement forums,” the statement said. “Councillors should not work in a vacuum, disregard, restrict, disrespect or ignore those who are part of the community. While viewpoints may occasionally differ, it is healthy to have respectful and engaged dialogue to build a stronger, responsive and more representative community.

Those who attended were ready to address a variety of subjects, sometimes disagreeing on the particulars.

Dust control became one of those topics with some decrying the lack of grading that is done on dust controlled sections, while others questioned why some areas get dust control at no cost while others pay half the cost born by the municipality.

They asked about the true cost of development and what part is born by developers, what other municipalities are doing and what other options are our there for financing projects like the Dugald – Oakbank water plant.

The possibility of using a municipal improvement district to allow those who benefit the most to pay a larger share was discussed. Currently the RM of Springfield’s plan is to pay for the project with taxes applied to all assessments across the municipality.

Many were also concerned about future projects. Concerns were raised about the potential costs of the planned recreation centre, and a lagoon expansion.

The crowd even drifted into conspiracy theory territory as some expressed concern about 15-minute cities, and their fear that would limit their freedoms and mobility.

But some in attendance were also critical of the hosting councillors.

After some expressed frustration that the mayor and other RM of Springfield councillors were not in attendance, others pointed out that the meeting was not a sanctioned RM event.

They also criticized Miller and Kuczynski for attacking the mayor and refusing to work well with other councillors.

Miller admitted after the meeting that they hadn’t explicitly invited other councillors or the mayor.

“Specifically we had the ad in the paper. We sent out emails. We encouraged them,” he said. “If you want to ask if we personally invited them, no, we didn’t do that.”

However Miller said they could still have attended.

“We didn’t personally invite them either,” he said, pointing to the group of attendees. “We didn’t know if we’d have five people, or 50 or 100. (Council) saw the notice just like everybody else.”

Some in the crowd also defended the idea of the town hall meeting after others criticized it saying it would do no good.

“(A) town hall like this is invaluable support for the community,” a resident said. “Town halls are messy. People get angry, people get upset. They’re incredibly invaluable but they can get ugly.”

While residents were passionate as they shared their thoughts, the meeting remained civil with all who wanted getting a chance to speak.

That made it a success according to both Miller and Kuczynski.

“We had a diversity of ideas and concerns and so I think that’s successful,” Miller said. “If you can pack a room and have a diverse group of individuals share concerns from dust control to Sio Silica, to taxation, to the rec centre… we had a broad range of issues and that’s exactly what (we) wanted to get out of this.”

“We didn’t get a lot of solutions but we could learn from it,” Kuczynski said.

Both councillors say they see value in these meetings and hope to host them again in the future, despite and even because of the critical feedback they also received.

“They want us to cooperate and work together more as a council, but that’s difficult when you have political commitments we’ve made to the public from day one,” he said, referring to campaign promises to oppose the Sio Silica plan. “We can’t deviate from those.”

“We accept criticism,” Kuczynski said. “It’s constructive criticism.”

“We want to know where we failed and where we can do better,” Miller added.

Both councillors say they will continue to advocate for similar forums at the council table, that would include all of council and allow for public input.