A Wood Buffalo council meeting was recently canceled due to poor attendance, even though the meeting was publicized and the time and venue were posted a day earlier. The purpose of the meeting was to finish the previous review started on March 24 concerning capital projects. The previous meeting was ended without a full resolution of the review because a motion to extend the meeting failed to pass. A full 30 minutes after the start time of the council meeting only five councillors were present and 5 were still missing. Since a majority of the Wood Buffalo council was not either present or participating through teleconferencing the quorum requirements could not be met and the meeting had to be canceled. This meant that the review could not be completed at that time and it will need to be addressed at a future meeting instead.

Do members of the Wood Buffalo council have a duty to attend every meeting of the council? Since Councillor elect Colleen Tatum was not officially sworn in she could not participate. Mayor Melissa Blake attended, and so did Councilors Sheldon Germain, Jane Stroud, Julia Cardinal, and Phil Meagher. Some point out that the elected officials are paid a salary to attend council meetings, and there are few penalties for an official who misses one or even more of the meetings. Are these councilors giving value to the people that they represent? There are times when life happens and things come up that can not be avoided, but the people expect their elected representatives to represent them and for this to happen the official has to be present.