An unanswered query sent to the Town of Cochrane’s Chief Administrative Office (CAO), Mike Derricott, and the disabling of comments on the Town of Cochrane’s official Facebook page, raise concerns about the level of engagement tolerated by the Town. 

On September 19, I wrote the following email, “Commitment to Give Staffing Updates”, to the town’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mike Derricott, with a copy to Mr. Drew Hyndman, Executive Director, Development & Infrastructure Services, “My recollection during the budget discussions that took place in late 2021was that there was a commitment to provide regular (quarterly?) reporting of new hires. My understanding was that commitment was provided to give the Council some assurance and comfort as to administration’s recommendations for new additional staffing as per the budget.  My understanding, however, is that that has not taken place and we are now into the last quarter of the year”. Not receiving a reply after a hiatus of almost three weeks, I then sent the following email to Mayor Genung and Town Council on October 7th:

As per below, I sent an email to the CAO enquiring about my understanding of a promised commitment to give staffing updates. Almost three weeks have passed and disappointingly no response from the CAO with an explanation as to why that commitment has not been honored. I am still interested in receiving an explanation. I am now requesting that our Mayor and Town Council secure an explanation from the CAO, who seemingly has chosen to ignore me.

Perhaps this silence from the CAO and Administration should come as no surprise given their recent decision to shut down any comments at the Town of Cochrane’s official Facebook page. Was such a decision endorsed by our Town Council? On September 27th there was an announcement at the Town’s Facebook page that “While the discussions we see on our public Facebook page reflect the community passion, they do not always contribute to a civil dialogue or the sharing of accurate information. So we’ve decided to try something different – we have disabled comments on the Cochrane Facebook page”. However, the Administration insisted “we still want to hear from you” and suggested “Send your comments and questions through Facebook messenger, send an email, or give us a call”. With respect to “send an email”, as per below, I did just that and received no response. 

So, what prompted the Town Administration to take this drastic action to disable comments on the Town’s Facebook page? It’s clear that it relates to comments received with respect two Facebook posts, one on September 14th and the other on September 19th, related to an announcement that the Town’s municipal facilities would be closed on September 19th in observance of the National Day of Mourning in Canada (declared by Justin Trudeau) to honour Queen Elizabeth II. The September 14th post received 68 comments and the September 19th post received 36 comments, the vast majority of which were highly critical of the virtue-signalling by the Town Administration deciding to make the ‘sacrifice’ of taking the day off with pay, even though it wasn’t a declared statutory holiday in Alberta.   

As an example of the pushback, the following comment, “Town of Cochrane you work for us and by looking at the comments, the majority is not happy with your choices. Think it is time to reconsider this decision and work that day like the rest of us. Just remember, we are the ones who vote to see if you get to keep your job. I would love to see a new Mayor and ALL new council next election”, garnered 19 likes. Several other commentators misunderstood that this was a decision made by the CAO and Town Administration, not by our elected representatives, Town Council. The press release at the Town’s website declared, “Cochrane To Honour National Day Of Mourning In Canada”. Most often one presumes that “Cochrane” is a reference to a decision made by our elected Town Council, but often this refers to decisions made by the town’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and Administration, as was the case here. Therefore, the byline of the press release should have more accurately read, ‘Town of Cochrane Administration to Honour National Day of Mourning, as Declared by Justin Trudeau, with Day Off With Pay’. 

While the Administration declared in the September 27th post on Facebook, “We look forward to more public engagement”, the concern is that there is a disappointing trend to limiting engagement with the Town as occurred with the disabling of comments on the Town’s Facebook page. For an Administration whose mantra is a nauseating admonition “to be kind”, apparently such criticism of the Administration as occurred on Facebook would not do in ‘Mr. Roger’s neighborhood’.

We should be looking forward to more and improved public engagement with our Town, not less. As I recently experienced with respect email queries sent to the Mayor and Town Council as to the status of the framed Charter, it took nearly five months to finally receive a response. A request by Deborah Murphy to appear before Council to seek an answer was disallowed by the Administration which, in my view, essentially acts like a gatekeeper to limit engagement. This disappointing trend of limiting engagement with the Town needs to be addressed and reversed. 

I recently watched a video of a Town Update given by the Mayor of Okotoks. Unlike our town which, in my view, is taking steps to close down and insulate itself from community engagement and criticism, one applauds her declared desire to “enhance dialogue and engagement with our community”. For example, she mentioned the introduction of a monthly Council Connector program whereby the first Wednesday of every month “you can come and ask various Council members questions and share ideas”. She also mentioned Open Houses with Council and Administration to discuss various topics. How about implementing the same for the Town of Cochrane as well as making it easier for citizens to present their ideas as a delegation to Council? I look forward to your bringing such avenues and others forward to provide a much needed enhancement of engagement with our community.

Let’s hope that the Town takes steps to enhance not close down engagement with its citizens. Whether or not they reply to my email, will provide an answer in itself.

UPDATE, August 11, 2023:

Not receiving a reply to my October 7, 2022 email from Town Council, I sent another email, “Commitment to Give Staffing Updates”, to the Town council a month later on November 3, 2022 as follows: