I’m thinking we have to get something straight here.
I’ve been doing a little freelance writing for Ryan Stanko, the owner of this paper for a bit now. When he and I first talked, the idea was that I was just to cover the council meetings of the RM of Russell – Binscarth. I was to fill in the blanks. Cover the things that were not being covered by the Russell paper. So basically, just the council meetings. And maybe a few other human-interest things, if I could find them. We’re not here to take over coverage – or hurt the Russell Banner, just to make sure that people are informed – because that’s what community newspapers do.
I have to say, out of all the things I’ve ever covered, council meetings were seldom my favorite. To be honest, they’re tedious and often, I have to search for something to tell you about.
The last council meeting wasn’t much different. But it was a little weird.
Out of the 29 items on the agenda, there were three or four items listed for open discussion that I thought might be interesting to tell you about. But each of them, in mid meeting, (sometimes as the councillors were actually talking about them) were moved ‘in camera’ – meaning that council had suddenly decided that they needed to be discussed in private. As far as I’ve always understood, items designated for in camera discussion by council are things like personnel issues and are designated as such, prior to the meeting. In fact, in all the years I’ve been doing this, and the hundreds of meetings I’ve covered, I’ve never seen this happen.
But maybe the rules have changed. I don’t have time to check….
So, two and half hours later, there really wasn’t anything of interest left to write about. Not a single thing.
But that ‘Letter re: Merv Starzyk CP Rail’ listed on the agenda, had caught my eye. And in the little bit that had been discussed by council before it was deemed private, I knew I was right. So much so, that before I left, I asked council if they thought it would be important enough to write about. I said I’d talk to the mayor about it the next day.
I have to say, I came home more than a little frustrated – so much so that I couldn’t sleep. My intuition told me that this was something really important. And for whatever reason, this council (not all of them, but most) was totally shutting me out. But I had work to do. I didn’t have time to worry about them.
So, let’s cut out the middleman, I thought, and I headed to the computer to find this Merv Starzyk guy. Turns out, he’s been in municipal politics for more than thirty some years. And that’s probably why he’s so great to deal with. He understands the importance of the media and how we can work together to achieve what we want. It’s so much more efficient that way.
The next morning, I called him and asked him what CP Rail was up to.
While he didn’t send me the letter that he’d sent to this council (and apparently quite a few others), he did better than that. He explained everything he knew about what was going on between the farmers and CP Rail. He told me about the letters that stressed-out farmers had passed onto him and how the April 30th deadline was looming. He was worried and so was I and we both knew that this was something that had to be made public right away. We had to get someone other than the farmers screaming. We had to let people know because despite the fact that it appeared that right now, CP was only contacting farmers in Manitoba and Alberta , we knew that this would eventually be nation wide. And that farmers, municipalities and even MP’s everywhere needed to be prepared.
We talked about the Zoom meeting and the calls he’d made to the Canadian Transportation Agency on behalf of his ratepayers. With that, I could hunt out a few farmers, talk to them and get copies of the letters they’d received. That’s all the stuff you see in the article. It all started – and ended – with honest and respectful (and often really funny) conversations with the Mayor of the RM of Yellowhead.
In the end, we accomplished what we’d both set out to do – we got the word out to farmers – and everyone else – as quickly as you can in a weekly paper. While I don’t normally do this, I sent him the entire story before publication with the agreement that I would adjust whatever he felt needed to change. He called back with one thing. I’d spelled his name wrong.
As I thanked him for all the information and the help, literally, at the same time, he thanked me too.
I’m so very grateful that Mayor Merv Starzyk is the type of old school politician who ‘gets it’.
All of you should be too. T.W.
