Camrose Now
4925 48 st T4V-1L7 Camrose, AB, Canada

What a handsome guy! Calling for the patient and compassionate cat people, many rewards await for the kind soul that adopts this boy.

Get your market on! Today at The Bailey.

I think the Easter Bunny is looking for a new home ...

Warm up this Wednesday with Wild Rose Co-op Gas Bars!

Join over 100,000 Albertans this February and go for a walk outside. Aside from getting active, bring your family outside and participate in a Word Scramble Hunt around Mirror Lake. More information available at https://www.camrose.ca//recreati/programs-and-courses.aspx

For more information ... https://www.centralagenciesrealty.com//42-mt-pleasant-drive

For more information ... https://www.lambford.com//2019-black-titanium-18790440.html

Time is running out to get your ticket for the Transformation Weekend 2021. FIND YOUR PASSION. FIND YOUR PURPOSE. TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE. For more information:

Please see the message below from Mayor Mayer regarding the Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework negotiations with Camrose County. Text of Letter: Hello Camr...ose. I am addressing you today to update the community on the ongoing negotiations with the Camrose County regarding fair and equitable cost sharing for shared services. For too long, the City tax payers have been subsidizing County users. In an effort to be more equitable to our City ratepayers, and without an agreement recreation funding with the County in place past December 31, 2020, the City has been forced to apply differential pricing for use of recreational facilities in the City, which will come into effect on February 1, 2021. Urban Municipalities across Alberta have, historically, shouldered the cost for services that benefit both their own residents and the entire region. Previous Municipal Government Act versions gave municipalities the option to engage in cost sharing agreements, but contributions from Counties to urban services such as recreation and transit relied on the County’s willingness to provide funding. Linear assessment models provide significant tax revenues to rural municipalities for items like oil and gas wells, pipelines, and power generation and power lines in their areas. Urban municipalities have long fought for a fair share of these funds to contribute to services that they provide to their region. Updates to the Municipal Government Act were intended to fix the inequity. All municipalities are now required to enter into Intermunicipal Collaboration Frameworks (ICFs) with municipalities that share borders. The ICF process was put in place by the Province to ensure that municipalities pay for services that benefit their residents. If a municipality is providing services to its neighbors (such as the City of Camrose’s recreational facilities) the ICFs are intended to make sure that the other users pay their fair share of the costs associated with that service. The City has the legislative and moral responsibility to the ratepayers in the community to ensure appropriate funding is in place for these shared services that the City provides. The City has been negotiating ICFs in good faith for 2 years with Camrose County and provided the County with proposals for recreation, recycling, and fire services on a cost follows benefit approach. This approach meant that County resident use of City services was calculated based on the likelihood they would use the services and determined by how close they lived to the City. This approach was also supported by historical data related to usage of City services and recommended 23% of the operational deficit for recreation be funded by the County, and 77% be funded by the City. This agreement, and model for calculating costs, was rejected by the County. The difference in taxes paid by a County residence assessed at $300,000 toward recreation services in the City proposal versus the County’s proposal was $89 per year but it was rejected. The Fire Services proposed agreement using the same formula had County residents paying less than they had in previous years for the same level of service. Again, this proposal was rejected. In 2018, prior to the start of construction, Camrose County agreed to contribute $2.64 million to the Aquatic Facility based on 83% of County survey respondents stating that they supported a capital contribution to the refurbishment of the pool. The County has since reversed that decision. They have backed out of the recycling agreement altogether. The County’s rational for not fulfilling their financial commitments on their recreation proposals was due to the proposed changes to the linear assessment, which had already begun in 2018 when they made some of those commitments. Alternative packages of agreements suggested in good faith by the City have also been declined by the County. The City cannot continue to provide services to the County without the County contributing to the services and capital costs for providing those services. Not only do the tax payers of the City of Camrose subsidize the operation of various services, such as recreation, recycling, and fire, they also support the debt associated with building these facilities. Camrose City Council would have liked to have a fair ICF agreement in place with the County without requiring arbitration, which will be costly for both parties. However, the City cannot continue to provide services to the County residents without appropriate funding agreements in place. City Council has been forced into a position to make the difficult decision to institute differential pricing at the Aquatic Centre, for all our ice surfaces, at the Chuck McLean Arts Centre and for use of our ball fields. This is not something done lightly but we have a responsibility to our residents to have fair and equitable user fees. The City has also provided notice to the County that we are enacting our one-year clause to exit the current fire services agreement. Both of these decisions were something we wanted to do as a last resort. However, without agreements in place, the burden of the cost of services will be borne by Camrose residents, which is not fair or in the spirit of the ICF process. Finally, Council has directed administration to prepare for the arbitration process as it seems that a fair and equitable agreement cannot be made. We do not make this decision lightly. But, as stewards of our community, it is our responsibility. Thank you. Mayor Mayer City of Camrose

The winter off-leash dog park at the Camrose Golf Course is now open! Visit https://www.camrose.ca/en/living-here/parks.aspx#Dog-Park for more details.

Driving an electric car off the bucket list for this lady who is turning 94 on Sunday.