ABSTRACT
The local media, the Cochrane Eagle and Cochrane Now, gave an interim report on the motion that came forward to Town Council on June 23rd to remove the town from the ICLEI/FCM’s Partners for Climate Protection program. However, there was no such article to complete the story by reporting on the final outcome of the September 8th vote, with Mayor Genung and four councillors (Nagel, Flowers, Fedeyko and McFadden) voting in favour of the town remaining in the PCP program and two councillors (Wilson and Reed) voting in opposition.
While understandable for the Cochrane Eagle to do so, as it is the recipient of income ($70,890 in 2024) from the Town from publishing town information so it ‘doesn’t bite the hand that feeds it’, it was disappointing that Cochrane Now, as well, decided to keep Cochrane residents in the dark on this matter, as we approached the municipal election on October 20, 2025.
FULL BLOG
In my presentation as a delegation to Cochrane’s town council on February 18, 2025, I had requested that a councillor come forward and make a motion to remove the town from the ICLEI/FCM Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program. Disappointingly, there was no subsequent local media report about my delegation.
At the June 23, 2025 Regular Council Meeting, Councillor Patrick Wilson brought such a motion forward, but a vote on the motion was postponed as a result of Mayor Genung’s proposal to refer it to the town’s Natural Environment Protection (NEP) task force (even though such a matter was outside its mandate). The NEP task force was to provide comments for Council’s consideration before the motion was to be brought back for council deliberation when it was next to meet on September 8, 2025 after the summer break.
While not reporting on my original delegation, at this stage both local media, the Cochrane Eagle (“Task Force to advise council on future of international sustainability partnerships in the Fall”) and Cochrane Now (“Wilson pushes for local control over climate policies”) reported on the outcome of the June 23rd Council Meeting.
However, when it came to completing the story by reporting on the outcome of the September 8th vote with Mayor Genung and four councillors (Nagel, Flowers, Fedeyko and McFadden) voting in favour of the town remaining in the PCP program and two councillors (Wilson and Reed) voting in opposition, crickets from our local media.
Not surprising that the Cochrane Eagle chose to do so, as it is the recipient of income from the town ($70,890 in 2024) for publishing town information, so ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you’. Such reporting by the Cochrane Eagle sympathetic to the town Administration, was the subject of a previous blog post, “Media Spin on Recent MDP Statutory Public Hearing” (November 29, 2024), a biased article by Howard May, who is currently running for town councillor.
Disappointing and surprising, however, that Cochrane Now also chose to neglect reporting on the outcome from the September 8th council meeting as they, unlike the Cochrane Eagle, are not beholden to the town for income. This would have been information beneficial for the residents of Cochrane to be aware of before voting on October 20th, but the local media decided to keep the public in the dark.