The steering committee struck to draft a proposal for the future use of the former Foothills Lodge seniors' living facility meets for the first time this week.
"The committee is being established on behalf of the minister of Alberta Seniors and Housing," said Sam Smalldon, Mountain View Seniors' Housing (MVSH) chief administrative officer.
The minister, Lori Sigurdson, has outlined terms of reference for the committee indicating who can sit at the table, as well as the group's purpose, which includes eventually reporting back to provincial officials, he said.
"The committee's purpose will be to review proposals and make a recommendation to the minister on the community's proposed use for the Foothills Lodge."
The minister wants to know what the community's desires are, he added.
The committee's members have been selected, and they will meet at the new Mountain View Seniors' Housing facility on Thursday, Jan. 12 starting at 7 p.m. Chairing the group is Mountain View County reeve Bruce Beattie, and included are four public members from the Sundre community. There are seven members in all. Additionally, those who sit on the committee are to be free of any conflicts of interest, he said.
"We want them to be unbiased in their decision. We're trying to follow a fair, open and transparent public process."
The role of Mountain View Seniors' Housing is simply to facilitate the committee's recommendation. Whatever proposal the committee comes up with should be submitted to the minister by the end of March. Meetings will be ongoing until that work is complete. The minister will then review the formal report and provide an answer, hopefully by the end of spring and no later than the end of June, he said.
The initial meetings will largely be organizational, and the committee will eventually decide if existing information and proposals already submitted would be sufficient to come up with a recommendation or whether additional public consultation will be necessary, he said.
Beattie told the Round Up the committee would be evaluating the quality of the proposals submitted to date.
"We did put out a request for decision asking the public for proposals ó that's what the committee will be considering."
He did not rule out the possibility of meeting with members of the public if there's enough interest.
"As chairman, I run the meeting. Beyond that, it'll be up to the committee to make those kinds of decisions" regarding whether to host a public engagement session.
"I will leave that up to the committee. (But) if there's a need for it, I'm certainly prepared to entertain that," he said about the possibility of holding an open house.
The process has taken quite some time to prepare, and some people might have been wondering what took so long, Smalldon said.
"Working with the government is not always a straightforward process," he said.
Until a final decision on the facility's future is approved, MVSH has a property management agreement with the ministry to maintain the building, he said.
"We're the caretakers," he said, expressing a desire to clarify the fact MVSH does not own the building.
Anyone with inquiries about the process can contact Smalldon by emailing him at [email protected], or by calling 403-556-2957. Additionally, anyone interested in submitting ideas for the committee's consideration is welcome to email the chair at [email protected].
