Town of Kindersley council approves records disposal

By Stu Salkeld
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Your West Central Voice

KINDERSLEY – To make room in file storage, the Town of Kindersley council approved a request from staff to destroy certain records deemed unnecessary and that were roughly eight to 11 years old. The resolution was passed at the Aug. 10 regular meeting.

Councillors read a report from Deputy Administrator Jenna Lavoie requesting council's permission to dispose of old records deemed unnecessary. "Administration is requesting council approval to dispose of records identified in Records Disposal Schedule 'A' in accordance with the Town's Records Retention and Disposal Bylaw and applicable legislative requirements," stated Lavoie's memo to council.

Kindersley town council voted Aug. 10 to send roughly eight to 11 years of old municipal files to a shredding company, at a cost of $500, clearing space in town storage. Screenshot

"The records identified in Schedule 'A' consist of routine administrative and operational records that have no archival or historical significance and therefore do not require approval from the Archives Board prior to disposal."

The staff memo noted that disposing of the old records met three goals: ensuring compliance with the town's Records Retention and Disposal Bylaw, freeing up storage space by removing records that have exceeded their retention period and ensuring records are disposed of in a secure and consistent manner.

The staff memo observed that no copy of the records in question would be retained, and that the town would hire a shredding company for a cost of $500 to do the work.

During her verbal presentation, Lavoie observed the records in question dated from 2015 to 2018. She repeated that the records in question were not permanent records and had no historical value.

The staff memo listed the records to be disposed of and included accounts payable files such as cancelled cheques, accounts payables and invoices, accounts receivable, which included documents such as fire dept. billings and utility billing reports, administration/financial documents such as general journal postings, council packages, general files such as bank deposit books and reconciliations and a miscellaneous category that listed only "Trip of the Month" tickets.

Councillors unanimously passed a resolution to authorize the disposal of municipal records from 2015 through 2018, as identified in Records Disposal Schedule "A" that was presented at the meeting.