BARRHEAD - Woodlands County will investigate the possibility of moving the boundary between Divisions 3 and 4 in order to alleviate confusion among local residents, but councillors are otherwise uninterested in re-visiting their electoral boundaries ahead of the 2021 municipal election.
County councillors passed a motion during their Dec. 2 meeting to have administration internally review whether it would be feasible to move the boundary between the Whitecourt East and Whitecourt Central divisions away from Range Road 121.
The motion was spurred by a request from a resident living along Range Road 121 who asked if it would be possible for council to review the electoral division boundaries ahead of the next election.
Chief administrative officer Gordon Frank noted the Municipal Government Act (MGA) allows for changes to be made to electoral boundaries up until Dec. 31 of the year before an election. In other words, any changes to the county’s seven divisions would have to be done before the end of 2020.
Goose Lake/Freeman River Coun. Dale McQueen noted that a range road also served as the boundary between his division and that of Fort Assiniboine Coun. Dale Kluin.
All they did was split the road into two halves, with McQueen representing the residents on one side and Kluin representing residents on the other.
“I don’t know why we would want to spend a bunch of money changing things around now,” he said, noting that having two councillors might even be a good thing, since you could approach two councillors to get an issue addressed.
Kluin put forward a motion to accept the resident’s request for information. However, Coun. Jim Rennie said it might be worth looking at the boundary between the two Whitecourt divisions, as it was the source of a lot of confusion.
Coun. Ron Govenlock said he had discussions with Rennie in the past about altering the boundary, though only as a minor adjustment that could be done in-house.
He was otherwise not prepared to endorse any major changes to electoral boundaries if they required a lot of work or expense.
Kluin indicated he was not opposed to having his motion amended to allow for an internal review of the Division 3 and 4 boundary and whether it can be changed.
“I’m good with that, as long as it doesn’t affect every other division and cost us a lot of money,” he said.
Ultimately, the amended motion was passed 4-1, with McQueen voting in opposition.
