City Coun. Buck Buchanan is attending the Making Cities Livable Conference in Rome.
The third-term councillor registered and paid for the conference last year.
This year the theme is Caring for Our Common Home: Sustainable, Healthy, Just Cities and Settlements.
It comes with an estimated $3,000 price tag.
In 2015, the eight city councillors were allocated $11,477 each for professional development including conference attendance. The mayor has a separate professional development budget.
Buchanan had $2,000 left in his budget at the end of December 2015, according to the city’s website.
“We strictly use our budgets for AUMA (Alberta Urban Municipalities Association) and FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities),” said Buchanan. “That’s our professional development. I’ve done this one before and I’ve enjoyed the conference. I looked at it and had the budget and the room in it to do it. It was all done before year’s end last year.”
The conference runs from June 13 to 17.
Buchanan will be back in Red Deer on Sunday.