On Wednesday, April 3, Ritchot council covered a variety of topics at their morning public meeting.
EV Truck
Among the first was the recent purchase of another Ford Lightning XLT extended range electric pickup truck at a cost of $88,700.
“The truck was purchased as part of the Ritchot Car Share Initiative (RCSI), thanks to $150,000 in funding from the Climate and Conservation Fund,” says EDO Ryan Faucher. “This is the second [Ford Lightning EV] the RM has purchased and, if future funding is secured, it may increase up to five.”
Until the public car share program is ready for launch, the pickups will be integrated into the public works fleet for use by RM staff. Eventually, the EVs will be available to residents for rent on evenings and weekends.
“To date, the first vehicle has been used by RM staff to gain feedback and test capabilities and range during the winter, which will be used to guide future vehicle selection,” Faucher adds.
Faucher says he’s still waiting for the car share platform to become available to the public. More details on the RCSI will be available closer to the program’s official launch date.
New Employee
New to the RM staff this year is David Huska who will take on the full-time position of Parks and Infrastructure lead hand, working out of the public works department.
“He is responsible for maintaining and developing parks and greenspace within the RM and managing and coaching seasonal green team employees,” says CAO Mitch Duval. “David brings a wealth of experience to our team and we are confident he was the best person for the position.”
Terracon Agreement
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, council was asked to consider allowing a minor change to an agreement which exists between the RM and Terracon, the developers responsible for the 161-acre development proposed for Île-des-Chênes’s south side.
According to Duval, the developer is asking for the inclusion of a clause which would give them some flexibility in paying for their contribution towards Main Street repairs when they are undertaken.
“The improvement to IDC’s Main Street by Terracon is to include the stretch from Dumaine Road to Lacroix Avenue,” Duval says. “The clause that council approved was in regard to the timing of their $500,000 contribution to the RM.”
According to Duval, there is still no official timeline in place for street improvements to begin on the street.
Bilingual Service
Finally, Duval announced to council that the Honourable Ian Bushie, Minister of Municipal and Northern Relations, has officially signed off on the Municipal Maturity Model (3M). The 3M program was developed by the Association of Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities (AMBM) as a way to assist the province’s bilingual communities in rolling out all services they provide in both official languages.
With the province’s recent stamp of approval, Ritchot’s council voted unanimously in favour of creating a bylaw to adopt the program internally.
“As a municipality that uses both official languages, we are always looking for ways to improve in the way we communicate and provide services to our communities in both official languages,” Duval told The Citizen. “This has been in the works for a number of years and it’s an important milestone for us at the RM of Ritchot. Now that the bylaw has been adopted, we will review our services to determine what level we are currently at and then develop a strategy on how we will move forward to implement any changes that need to be made.”
