The meeting of City Council was relatively short Monday evening, with only a few items on the agenda. 

The first item to be discussed was the Southeast Regional Library Fees for 2019. Council decided to pass them, intending to gather more information on the matter.

Council also passed the Building permit and water quality reports for October 2018. They decided upon a review of the federal removal of council exemption, noting that doing it by a small council is the best way to see the changes and review what needs to be done before moving forward.

"A few months ago it came to our attention that they were talking about it at the FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities). Although they said they were going to lobby the federal government about it, they thought they'd be successful because this exemption has been in place for decades. With that change, we will take the opportunity to review everything to do with a city our size, come back with this committee and move forward from there," said Mayor Roy Ludwig, adding that they hope to get the committee together within the next few weeks.

In addition, the Property Maintenance Bylaw passed its first reading through the council.

"Some of the most notable changes would be the tightening up of the time-lines, especially for untidy properties. By the time we get through all the steps involved with larger developments, there are weeds all over the place. I think it was very important to not only update this bylaw, but keep it timely and tighten up some of the timelines."

The bylaw will be for all types of property, and will include snow removal, along with tree branches hanging over sidewalks and back alleys. The city cites that some branches hang too low and scratch the tops of vehicles.

Ludwig also added that some of the fines were increased a little, but the city is not seeing it as a large money generator.