Rocky View County (RVC) council voted against a motion to reinstate County advertising in the Rocky View Weekly newspaper at their Nov. 30 meeting, citing the need for a more fulsome communications strategy for the municipality before deciding on future advertising policies and budgets.
The Nov. 30 discussion came after Couns. Kevin Hanson and Samanntha Wright had brought forward a notice of motion to reinstate municipal advertising in the newspaper at the previous meeting. The councillors said they had heard while campaigning for the Oct. 18 election that many residents wished for RVC advertisements to be reinstated in the paper.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel – this has been done before, and this administration is very well versed in how to do it and what to do,” Wright said. “If we want to change the format on that, I would leave that to the communication department.
“For now, I’d like to get that information back in the paper.”
RVC discontinued newspaper advertising in July 2020, after the previous council approved amending the County’s public notifications bylaw. Instead of the print newspaper, the County opted to advertise its public hearings, bylaw approvals, rezoning applications, and other municipal business on RVC’s website and social media channels.
Much of the Nov. 30 discussion centred on the County’s lack of a formal communication strategy, as well as the fact the County's 2022 budget deliberations are set to get underway.
An amendment was made to Hanson’s and Wright’s notice of motion to include a budget cap of $80,000 for newspaper advertising, but that amendment was later withdrawn after it brought discussion and confusion on whether or not the ads would be reinstated immediately or in the more distant future.
Coun. Greg Boehlke said he couldn’t approve the motion without more information and detail, such as a report from County staff outlining the impact that cancelling newspaper advertising had on public engagement.
“We all agree we need a communication strategy, we agree we need more information – I thought we did anyway – and here we go off half-cocked, with no idea what we’re really asking for, other than we want to reinstate [newspaper advertising],” he said.
“We haven’t had a report from administration on whether or not the circulation or distribution of the paper has improved. That was one of the reasons we cancelled a lot of our advertising in there.”
Speaking on staff’s behalf, interim chief administrative officer Kent Robinson said administration needs more time to provide the type of information that Boehlke requested.
He also said it’s hard to gauge whether public engagement in 2020 and 2021 was affected by a lack of newspaper advertising, or due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In terms of public participation in public hearings, I would be very reluctant to suggest the lack of newspaper advertising has caused any change in that,” he said. “[Are people] reluctant to participate because they didn’t see it in the newspaper, or are they reluctant to participate because of the pandemic?”
Deputy Mayor Crystal Kissel said she didn’t see why the decision was made such a big deal of, adding that reinstating newspaper advertising would be akin to “hitting the reset button.”
“I truly believe the last council cancelled it without much thought and decided they would take the money,” she said. “I believe that action did not work well for a lot of people.”
Wright agreed with Kissel, calling the cancellation of newspaper advertising a “knee-jerk reaction” to negative commentary and coverage of the County in the paper.
She noted RVC does advertise in the publication when it suits the municipality’s needs.
“We keep hearing we can’t just reinstate it, [but] we didn’t give any consideration when we cancelled it – we just decided we were going to cancel it because that’s what we were going to do,” she said.
“When we wanted to lobby for something like CMRB, we ran three weeks of ads. We use it when it suits us and not when it doesn’t.”
Boehlke refuted Kissel’s and Wright’s claim that the previous council did not put much thought into cancelling newspaper advertising.
“Perhaps you don’t remember, we had fulsome reports from our communication department explaining exactly what we were doing, what we were putting in, what value we were getting out of it, and council made a choice,” he said. “I don’t remember if you were in favour or opposed, but it doesn’t matter. It passed. But your statement is completely inaccurate.
“The previous council made a decision, and to cancel that decision with no information, I can’t support it.”
Apart from Boehlke, others who voted against the motion were Couns. Sunny Samra, Al Schule, and Mayor Don Kochan.
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
