Talk of municipal amalgamation turned to silence last Tuesday, as Athabasca town council declined to make a motion to formally explore the idea.
Introduced by Mayor Roger Morrill on April 28, the topic of increased regional collaboration was deffered until last Tuesday night’s council meeting. However, after a 25-minute discussion, the subject was laid to rest as no motion was made to pursue it.
Morrill began last Tuesday’s discussion reading a prepared statement, suggesting that council pass a motion to inform Athabasca County that the town would like to explore the opportunity for increased regional collaboration.
Morrill explained he was not asking for full-fledged amalgamation per se, but to increase collaboration with the county.
“Just a comment, that we are a long way down that path already,” CAO Doug Topinka said of collaboration. “There is a huge amount of stuff that the town and county do together.”
Councillor George Hawryluk said collaboration and amalgamation are different issues.
“We do a lot of collaborating with the county right now as it stands,” said Hawryluk. “Amalgamation is another issue that needs to be addressed.”
“I am in favour of amalgamation in principle,” said councillor Paula Evans. “Anything that gets rid of politicians is a good idea,” she added jokingly.
“It increases efficiencies in both operations. However, I have heard from many people (about) the amount of time and meeting it took to do this six years ago.”
Evans said they should “dust off the papers” and look at the plans from the previous attempt at amalgamation.
She went on to say that if talks are to go any further, it would be in the county’s hands. “The town voted for it. It was the county people who didn’t.”
Hawryluk expressed discontent with the timing of the discussion, saying it was strange that the idea of amalgamation was introduced in the year Athabasca celebrates its 100th anniversary. Although the town would still exist if amalgamation proceeded, Hawryluk said it would be disrespectful to volunteers who have spent countless hours preparing for the centennial celebration.
“You could have waited until we finished with the celebration and then brought it up, but this is poor timing in my opinion,” said Hawryluk.
“This isn’t something that is going to be completed in a month or two,” Morrill rebutted. “I see it taking a year or longer.”
Topinka, who was involved in amalgamation planning six years ago, said it didn’t take a long time, but was intense.
“We did it over about 10 months,” said Topinka. “Both councils committed a horrendous amount of hours. We had it down to (where) everybody from the town and county knew what they would do if we were amalgamated.
“We were totally prepared that if the electorate said yes today, tomorrow we would start the process.”
Councillor Tim Verhaeghe said he got the impression from the last two joint council meetings that the county’s interests are not in alignment with the town’s.
“I get the impression the county wants to gear itself for big business, and then when we talk about our local interests, it’s pooh-poohed and fluffed away. So I think our interests are too far apart from the county to go down the road of even discussing amalgamation,” he said.
Silence came over the room as Morrill asked if anyone would like to make a motion to increase regional collaboration.
After the meeting, Morrill said he felt council didn’t want to commit the time to explore the issue.
“That’s what everybody said. ‘We’re going through this and there is so much work and it’s just too much effort,’ — and that has been my big issue all along,” said Morrill, adding that their job descriptions require a lot of work, no matter what the issue is.
“(But) I have to be gracious and accepting of what five councillors said to me,” he said.
