By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Blackfalds: Parental Leave and Community Standards Bylaw

Jun 30, 2018 | 11:59 PM

Blackfalds town council is moving towards becoming a new parent-friendly organization.

While only a handful of Alberta communities have enacted such policies to date, municipal councils have had the power to pass parental leave legislation since the province updated the MGA last year.

“We want to encourage all persons to run for office, but recognize that some younger parents or parents in general, might be concerned if they were thinking of having a family or if it happened while they were in office,” says Mayor Richard Poole. “We wanted to make sure that would not be something that would prevent anyone from running for office in a future election.”

Town council gave first reading this week to make parental leave for council members 20 weeks. In Sylvan Lake, it is 16 weeks, while Edmonton has a 26-week policy.

If the legislation is approved, remuneration would be reduced to 55 per cent of normal. Council members do not pay into federal EI programs.

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Also, parental leave would not be available until a council member has served for a period of at least six months. Only one parental leave would be offered per four-year term, as proposed.

The matter will return to council in the coming weeks.

— Community Standards Bylaw

As well, council took time this week to begin updating a few sections of The Town’s Community Standards Bylaw.

First reading was granted and if approved, all first offences under the CSB will be $250, if they were perviously lower. If they were already higher, they will stay the same.

There is one exception, with spitting staying at $150.

Mayor Poole says in recent years, the costs of enforcing and prosecuting these types of fines has gone up, so they want to ensure there’s as little financial loss as possible.

Additionally, council is updating the Bullying section of the bylaw to include language around harassment on social media.

“It’s an increasing problem within the social media world,” Poole says. “We want to ensure everyone understands it’s a very serious offense and that we have the ability to stop it if it’s happening.”