Town of Strathmore

Submitted

The Town of Strathmore has received a few calls/questions with regard to the recent decision to withdraw from the Multi Municipality Program with WFCSS. To alleviate any concerns and ensure our residents are getting the facts, please note the following:

The Town of Strathmore has elected to withdraw from the WFCSS Program, which is a multi-municipality program, and form a single municipality program. Currently the multi program is between the Town of Strathmore, Wheatland County, and the Villages of Standard, Hussar, and Rockyford. It is assumed that Wheatland County and the Villages would continue to operate a multi-municipal program between themselves, however, as we will no longer be part of that program, the decision is outside of the Town of Strathmore's jurisdiction; so the authority for that decision would lie with Wheatland County and the Villages. To reiterate, the Town has no intention on shutting down the FCSS Program, nor do we have the authority to do so as this program is currently under the jurisdiction of all the participating municipalities; we are simply withdrawing from the current funding agreement, and forming our own department, with programs that suit the needs of the citizens of Strathmore, and the County and Villages can run their own programming, based on their needs.

To give a bit of background, the Town of Strathmore has been reviewing the structures of other municipalities of a similar size, and we discovered that it is common for FCSS to be a Municipal department, based on the fact that FCSS is a Municipal Program. One of the key principals of the FCSS Program is local responsibility in priority-setting and resource allocation, and therefore, each Municipality is best able to determine how the dollars they receive should be allocated to best meet local needs. The Town is not going into this lightly, or without extensive research into the pro's and con's of bringing the FCSS Program under the umbrella of the Municipality of Strathmore, and we have determined that it is in the best interests of the citizens of Strathmore to initiate this matter. Council were unanimous in the decision to undertake this initiative, and we are confident that we will be able provide enhanced preventative social services to the residents of Strathmore through our own FCSS Program. We are very excited about this initiative and are looking forward to the programs that we will be offering our residents in the future. As with any new venture, there will most likely be a few bumps in the road along the way, and it will take a bit of time to get up and running, but we will persevere. We are also in the process of recruiting and hiring an FCSS Coordinator who has expertise in this field.

It is our belief that this separation will be beneficial to all municipalities involved, as they will now have opportunity to allocate their portions of the funding to programs within their own communities, as well as to make their own decisions on the programs they wish to support. In addition, it is our intent to continue to cooperate and work together with our rural neighbours in the future, and it is our hope that we will continue to have a positive relationship.