Residents living in the Town of Barrhead will have another chance to voice their opinion officially about whether they agree with the new aquatic centre project.
On Tuesday, July 21, during a special meeting, Barrhead town council decided to give residents a chance to approve or disapprove bylaw 05-2015 in a vote come October.
The bylaw, also known as the Barrhead Regional Aquatic Centre Debenture Borrowing Bylaw, would allow the town to borrow up to $5 million for the town’s portion of the construction of a new aquatic centre.
In December the town and county agreed to share the construction cost of a new pool facility equally, each contributing $5 million.
On May 26, Barrhead town council unanimously passed first reading of the borrowing bylaw and scheduled a special meeting on June 26 to give it second and third reading, but council hit a snag after the town received a petition from a group headed by Barrhead town resident Chuck Hambling asking council to take a second look at the aquatic centre project.
The town received the petition on June 24. After receiving the petition, Martin Taylor, chief administrative officer for the Town of Barrhead, had 30 days to determine if the petition met the Alberta Municipal Government Act (MGA) criteria.
According to the MGA, in order for the petition to be considered valid it needed to be signed by at least 10 per cent of the town’s electors. In this case 443. The petition the town received contained 513 signatures.
Taylor told council that after investigating all the signatures, he found that the petition did meet the Alberta government’s standards of a petition.
Reading from a section of the MGA, Taylor said that in order for a signature to be considered valid it must meet certain criteria. In addition to the signature, a person must include their printed name, their address, which must be in the town’s boundaries and the date when signed. Each signature also had to be witnessed and signed by someone other than themselves.
Out of the 513 names submitted on the petition, 53 were disqualified for having incomplete or missing information or the address included wasn’t in town boundaries. Another signature wasn’t allowed because they witnessed their own signature and another because the date the petitioner signed was not included. All totaled the number of valid petitioners was 458.
“The petition containing 458 signatures is declared sufficient. First reading of bylaw 05-2015 is rescinded,” Taylor said.
Counc. Ryan Warehime moved to accept Taylor’s report as presented. The motion passed unanimously.
Once council accepts that a petition is valid they have two options. Either not to proceed with the bylaw or submit the bylaw to a vote of the electors within 90 days of the date the petition is declared valid.
Taylor recommended, if it was council’s wish, to bring the bylaw to the electors in a vote to take place on Wednesday, Oct. 7. For those not able to vote on Oct. 7, Taylor suggested that an advanced poll be held on Oct. 1. He also recommended that council allow for institutional voting, so Barrhead residents who are living at seniors lodges, extended care facilities, or are in hospital care would be able to cast their vote as well. Taylor also recommended council approve a special mail-in ballot for those people who will be absent from the community or physically unable to vote in person in the advance poll or on voting day.
Coun. Roy Ulmer asked why the town had to go through another vote, adding that residents had a choice to voice their opinions during the last municipal election in October 2013.
During the town’s municipal election residents were asked if they were in favour of borrowing up to $7 million for the construction of a new aquatic centre.
“That debenture question that went through on election day, didn’t mean anything. They wasted their vote to support a pool, right?” Ulmer asked. He then asked administration how much it would cost the town to hold another vote.
Taylor said the vote in 2013 was only a plebiscite to gauge the public’s interest for building a pool and it wasn’t a binding vote.
Kathy Vickery, Barrhead’s director of finance and administration, said although she couldn’t come up with firm numbers, the vote would range between $5,000 and $10,000.
“Perhaps as much as $15,000 if you include the costs of putting on the open houses,” she said.
Ulmer said the town didn’t have a choice but to put the bylaw to a vote, but he was still disappointed.
“It is such a waste of money, especially considering the petition only passed by 15 votes,” he said.
Council voted to accept Taylor’s recommendations with Ulmer opposed.
Taylor then asked council to consider the wording of the question for the vote.
“Administration has given it a lot of thought and we are recommending that we keep the question simple and direct,” he said. “Do you support bylaw 05-2015, the Barrhead Regional Aquatic Center Debenture Borrowing bylaw, to allow the Town of Barrhead to borrow up to $5 million for the construction of a new aquatic center? Yes or No?”
Council unanimously accepted administrative staff’s recommendation.
Coun. Warehime and Coun. Don Smith asked council if they should consider asking Barrhead County council to move forward with their own borrowing bylaw to minimize any delays.
“If they passed their borrowing bylaw it would give them a chance to see if their residents want to petition them,” Warehime said, adding that if the county received a successful petition, the town and county would be going through the voting process at about the same time.”
Because it was a special meeting, Leslie Penny, deputy mayor, said council was restricted to discussing only the topic of the borrowing bylaw petition.
