Chestermere utility rate saga comes to an end

The city of Chestermere is applauding a decision by Municipal Affairs to avoid an inquiry into the actions of the city’s council.

In a letter from the Ministry to Mayor Patricia Matthews, Minister Shaye Anderson writes “I have decided that an inquiry into the affairs of the council and administration of the city is not warranted at this time.”

Anderson’s letter follows a heated petition requesting the inquiry from residents, citing out of control utility prices and hikes as the precursor for such an action.

The city initiated a third-party review with Stack’d Consulting which recommended new guidelines for rate setting moving forward.

“I am satisfied that this response will improve the utility rate-setting process and substantially address the key concerns that led to this petition,” writes Anderson.

Matthews tells 660 NEWS she’s pleased with the outcome and looking forward now to focusing on other matters facing the city.

“We’re very pleased that the province has found no basis for investigating Chestermere city council or the administration as a result of the 2016 petition,” she said.

“We never saw concerns provided to us, just the general jist of it from the province,” Matthews clarified. “We’re happy for this process to be concluded and to be able to get back to concentrating 100 per cent on the work of building our community.”

The mayor says anytime they receive feedback, they want to make sure the residents are heard and they’re pleased Municipal Affairs recognizes it.

“We’ve made changes to our communications and the way that we interact with our residents and we’ve brought forward more ways for them to provide feedback on things like tax assessments and budgets and we’re just going to keep improving.”

Find Minister Shaye Anderson’s full letter to Mayor Matthews here:

Minister of Municipal Affairs Minister Shaye Anderson's letter to Chestermere Mayor Patricia Matthews on February 16th, 2017.

To read the mayor’s statement in full check here:

Copy of the statement issued by Chestermere Mayor Patricia Matthews on February 17, 2017.

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