Home - News ( United States | United Kingdom | Italy | Germany ) - Football scores

Showing content from https://banff.ca/petitions below:

Petitions | Banff, AB - Official Website

Most of the time, the things we call "petitions" are really just letters signed by a number of people. They might influence the way Council votes, but they don't obligate Council to vote in a certain way. Many of us have signed a petition at one time or another. They are usually used to indicate the support or opposition by a group of people towards a proposed action, in the hopes of influencing a government (or sometimes a private sector) decision.

A legal petition, on the other hand, requires Council to take a specific action. Depending on the situation, Council may be obligated to pass or defeat a bylaw, or take the issue to a general community vote (also known as a plebiscite).

Because legal petitions carry so much weight, there are rules which must be followed. These rules are set by the Municipal Government Act of Alberta. This Act can be viewed online by visiting the Alberta Queen's Printer.

Municipal Affairs publishes a document that can be used to identify areas of the Municipal Government Act relating to petitions to council. This document is intended to supplement and explain specific sections or applications of the Act.

We are pleased to provide a summary below; however, it is recommended that anyone wishing to file a petition obtain an office consolidation of the MGA, including amendments, and consult with Alberta Municipal Affairs or your solicitor prior to initiating a petition.

Who can sign a petition?
Only electors of a municipality are eligible to be petitioners. This means anyone signing the petition must be a Canadian citizen 18 years of age or older. The person must have been a resident of Alberta for the preceding six months, and be a resident of Banff the day he or she signs the petition.

The petition must be signed by at least 10 per cent of the population. 

What information is required?
A petition must consist of one or more pages, with each page containing an identical statement of the purpose of the petition. It also must include, for each person signing the petition:

• The printed surname and printed given names or initials of the petitioner,
• The petitioner's signature,
• The street address or legal address of the land where the petitioner lives, and
• The date on which the petitioner signs the petition.

Each signature must be witnessed by a person 18 years of age or over. The witness must sign opposite the signature of the petitioner, and sign an affidavit that, to the best of the witness's knowledge, the petitioner is eligible to sign the petition.

A signed statement must be attached to the petition. The person signing must confirm that they are the representative of the petitioners, and that all inquiries from the municipality must be forwarded to them.

Is timing a factor? 
When a petition is about a bylaw that has either already been passed or has been given first reading then advertised, there are deadlines for submissions. If you have any questions about deadlines, please contact the municipal clerk.

Contact Municipal Affairs
It is strongly recommended that individuals speak to Alberta Municipal Affairs to ensure they meet the requirements of a petition.

Banff Town Council has approved the return of the Banff Avenue Pedestrian Zone for the summer of 2024. The Town is proceeding with plans to implement the pedestrian zone in the same format as in 2023, inclusive of commercial development (i.e., restaurant patios and outlets) on public lands and the roadway open to pedestrians, bicycles and Roam Transit, from the May Long Weekend to October Thanksgiving Long Weekend. Town administration is proceeding with current Council direction to implement the pedestrian zone.

A petition calling for Council to repeal its decision to proceed with the annual summer pedestrian zone was presented to the Town of Banff. 

Timeline:

• March 1, 2024 – The Town of Banff received a petition “to repeal …the decision to proceed with a downtown pedestrian zone annually from the May Long Weekend to the Thanksgiving Long Weekend.”
• April 15, 2024 – The Town’s Chief Administrative Officer declared the petition valid. Download a copy of the document. The Town is preparing a bylaw for Council's consideration to implement direction of the petition.
• May 13, 2024 –The MGA required Town Council, within 30 days of the date the petition was declared valid, to give first reading to a bylaw directing the specified action - to rescind the decision to have a pedestrian zone. (A Council meeting was scheduled for May 13.) A bylaw requires second and third reading for it to be enacted.
• By or before June 12 (if first reading occurs on May 13) – Within 30 days of a first reading of the bylaw, Council must determine a course of action. Potential decision options for valid petitions were for Council to:
  1. Rescind the decision that has been petitioned. This could occur all at the same Council meeting or split over more than one meeting through a bylaw to rescind the decision to have an annual summer pedestrian zone.  
  2. Hold a vote of the electorate on whether or not to have the annual pedestrian zone. This option was selected. Council must hold the vote within 90 days of the May 13 first reading. Council decided to hold the vote on August 12, 2024. A vote will have the same MGA and Local Authorities Election Act (LAEA) requirements as in a municipal election: voters must be Canadian citizens, 18 years of age or older and reside in Banff. 
     • A vote of the electorate is binding. If the majority voting are in favour of rescinding the decision to have a pedestrian zone, Council must, within 30 days of the vote, pass second and third reading of the bylaw to rescind the decision, and the action must be implemented in reasonable time.

RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue

Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo

HTML: 3.2 | Encoding: UTF-8 | Version: 0.7.4