Okotoks council shot down a draft bylaw on Monday involving gifting (File Photo)

Councillors for the Town of Okotoks were not too charitable with a draft bylaw that was scrapped this past week.

The draft bylaw was to tighten up rules and guidelines on all donations and sponsorships that council could make in the future.

The bylaw was eventually scrapped in Monday's council meetings after councillors could not come to a complete decision on whether it should pass.

Councillor Tanya Thorn says she is very frustrated with the lack of progress on this issue.

"From my perspective, I am disappointed. I have been pushing for us to have a policy since November of last year. Because I just think this assigning dollars and picking and choosing at the whim of what gets applied to us, is an ineffective way to deal with this money. And if we don't have a policy, what are the guidelines set around it?"

On the other side of the issue was Councillor Matt Rockley. Rockley was vocal in council not wanting the motion to pass as he believes that councillors should pay for these donations and contributions out of pocket with a no-sponsorship policy.

Rockey says he believes council has slowly been moving in the wrong direction when it comes to making donations.

"The role of municipal government is providing public services and facilities to the residents of the community. And using tax dollars and then re-distributing that to charities, I think is a practice that is kind of evolved over time that is fundamentally out of step with what municipal government is tasked to do."

Rockley also stressed that councillors need to be accountable to their tax payers, and using their money as grants or sponsorships is not the prudent thing to do.

Thorn says at this point a framework needs to be in place to preserve that accountability.

"I think, in the day and ages of giving money from a government body, I think we need some transparency of: this is our policy, here is how it works, this is how we do it, and this is what we are going to do."

Okotoks councillors will return to the council chambers on Monday, September 8th.