Banff Public Library board chair Ross Glenfield spoke to council as a delegation to explaining why they wanted to rejoin the Marigold Library System. Marigold is a consortium of 36 member libraries that share resources, an operating system, book collections and more. The Banff library had left the system in 2005. Since then, changes to the Marigold system has created better access to programs and services not available to independent libraries. Council voted in favour of rejoining the Marigold Library System at a cost of $53,595 in the 2015 budget. They also voted to allocate $433,200 for the library’s annual budget – the same amount given in 2014 – and to hold that contribution for the 2016 budget as well. They asked that prior to resuming a budget increase based on inflation, that the library board present a business plan and capital replacement schedule to council.
Council gave third reading to an amendment to the business license bylaw which sets fees for the year. Some changes include: a one-day business license fee increase from $185 to $190, credit card payments allowed for fees less than $200, and a 2% increase to non-accommodation sector fees. At the 2006 Banff Lake Louise Tourism annual meeting, members approved a standard fixed increase of 2% per year for the Town’s Schedule B business license fees, starting in 2010 for non-accommodation businesses. Schedule B fees are used for the purpose of destination marketing.
An updated street pole banner policy was approved by council. The updated policy outlines the design specifications, locations and fees for installation. Installation fees went up from $44 to $70 to reflect the actual cost of installation. Council also made a change to the policy to reduce the advertising fee charge from $152 to $76 per banner, in hopes applicants would be more willing to pay the fee instead of requesting that it be waived.
Council received a briefing on the detailed results of the 2014 municipal census. Residents were asked up to eight “person-level” questions, covering topics such as age, gender, place of work, and more. In addition, three “dwelling level” questions were asked regarding property tenure and private vehicle ownership. Details were presented in seven fact sheets which can be found at Banff.ca/census.