Councillor Morgan Nagel wants the town to get an unqualified opinion on the 2022 operation budget, and he believes the town's 10-year financial plan desperately needs to be updated. Nagel spoke on the topic during discussions on Councillor Marni Fedeyko's notice of motion seeking a public vote on whether each town councillor remained confident in the leadership of town CAO Mike Derricott. He had been seeking a six-month deferral on the Fedeyko motion to discuss issues in- camera with CAO Derricott. When this looked doomed to fail, he put his cards on the table and sought what he believes are two specific deliverables. "Earlier this year, we didn't technically fail our operational audit but we came as close as you can possibly come and we actually had to remove capital projects because the budget was in such disarray that we didn't know if the dollars were there to pay for the capital projects," he pointed out. He says the 10-year capital strategy has not been updated in years and he is concerned the town is flying without a plan. "Failing to do that to me is an organizational failure, and those are the two things that I want to ensure are done. That was my intent with trying to defer this motion." Other councillors agreed with Nagel's concerns over the audit. Mayor Jeff Genung says the 10-year plan will be discussed at an upcoming council strategic planning session and the financial audit was on council's in-camera session later that night. Three capital projects were approved for a total of $5.86 million and were to be funded through a combination of grants and reserves but were pulled from the table when a glitch was discovered in the federal grant process by the town's new auditor. Council had approved the Glenpatrick Dr. infrastructure replacement; Glenpatrick Rd. and Glenhill Dr. intersection upgrades; and the Glenbow Dr. flood mitigation projects as part of the town's 2023 capital budget. They will now be brought forward as part of the 2024 budget for consideration. In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, CochraneNow encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the CochraneNow app.