At their last council meeting, Airdrie councillors adopted Bylaw No. B-02/2019.

So, you say.  How does this affect me?  If you're interested in things that are happening in Airdrie, like public hearings, land use rezoning, elections, and development appeal hearings, and want to know how you're going to find out about these things, you just might be interested in this bylaw.  It deals with advertising that must be done by the city under the Municipal Government Act.

Sharon Pollyck, Director at the City Manager's Office in Airdrie says council passed the bylaw and explains what that means.

"It means our legislative ads will be more of a condensed version and will direct people to certain places on the website for the complete descriptions with respect to those legislative ads."

And just what is the city obligated to advertise under the Municipal Government Act?   "Things that you would typically see us required to advertise, under the act," explains Pollyck, "is certain public hearings, so anything dealing with land use, when somebody comes forward asking for a piece of land in the city to be rezoned, that needs to be advertised.   We have to advertise debenture bylaws, election material, appeal hearings for the subdivision and development and appeal board.  It's those types of things."

Two people spoke against the bylaw at the public hearing.  One of them was Councillor Al Jones who excused himself because of a conflict of interest.  Pollyck says both intervenors felt it was important that the full context of the ads be included in the advertising so people who weren't technologically savvy or without access to technology would still be able to get the full content of the notifications.

In the end, council moved forward with the bylaw however they didn't want to see the advertising that the city is not legislatively required to do eliminated.  "So," says Pollyck, "we will continue with, typically, a one-page ad in the newspaper that talks about what's going on in the city and includes our legislated ads in a condensed format."

The Corporate Communication advertising budget would have been reduced to $30,000 if all the cutbacks on advertising that Pollyck suggested were maintained.  Council wishing to keep some of the other advertising in means an additional $45,000 will now be added.  Even so, Pollyck says, the changes mean a saving of $30,000 in the budget for 2019.  Where the $45,000 will come from has been referred to the Council Budget Committee to determine.  

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