PICTOU – County council has adopted a new policy covering attendance at seminars and conferences.
It says councillors with the rural municipality may only attend a maximum of four seminars or conferences offered in the Maritimes per year.
Requests to attend events outside the Maritime provinces will be examined by the county's Financial Services Committee.
Attendance at the annual Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities and Federation of Canadian Municipalities conferences, the later of which may only be attended by five members of council, are exemptions.
Councillor Allister MacDonald says the policy was a long time coming as attendance at conferences had been controversial for the county in the past.
“This is a clear statement to staff on what we, as councillors, are entitled to do,” MacDonald said, adding that just as county employees are entitled to training, so are members of council.
“We’ve always been attacked in the press because other towns had policies in place whenever the issue of the FCM came up.”
The new policy also spells out guidelines for reimbursement of travel and accommodation costs, and requires those persons attending conferences to file reports back to council within two months of their attendance.