Council Communications

At the Strategic Planning session in February of 2019, Council identified Communication and Engagement with citizens and ratepayers as one of its key priorities.

Kneehill County Council is committed to open and accountable decision making, which includes appropriate levels of communication and consultation between Council and the public. Communicating with residents is a key function of the County, involving elected officials and employees at all levels.

The Municipal Government Act (MGA) establishes a legal requirement for Council and Council committees to conduct business in public, and to ensure the public is notified of certain kinds of decisions. Kneehill County Council does this in the following ways:

• The agenda and corresponding information package for each Council meeting is available on the website for public viewing, usually on Thursday the week prior to the meeting.
• Council meetings are live-streamed and available for residents to watch on Kneehill County’s YouTube channel. The link to the live-stream is published on our website and on social media before 8:30 am the morning of the meeting.
• Each Council decision is posted on Kneehill County’s Twitter and Facebook pages as they take place during the meeting.
• Following the Council meeting, the live-stream video is saved as a webcast and the video is time-stamped to correspond with the Council agenda, allowing interested residents to easily access portions of the meeting based on the agenda item.
• Council Notes, a brief summary of the Council meeting including all Council decisions, is published on the Kneehill County website.
• A summary of each Council meeting is also published in the Three Hills Capital and other local media outlets.
• Official minutes from each meeting are available on the Kneehill County website and published in the Three Hills Capital.
• Council also holds monthly Committee of the Whole meetings to discuss County issues that are coming to the forefront. These are generally also open to the public.
• From time to time, Council does move into Closed Session to deal with labour, land or legal matters, as permitted by the MGA, and guided by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
• Members of Council are always available for discussion, and to answer questions you may have. Contact information for your Divisional Councillor is available on the Kneehill County website.