BARRHEAD - Woodlands County councillors begrudgingly voted 6-0 at their April 20 meeting to award a hay licence for a 145-acre portion of land near the Whitecourt airport, though not without making some pointed criticisms of the process that administration followed in advertising the licence.
The licence was awarded to 1775203 Alberta Ltd at a price of $41.69 per acre plus GST for the advertised period of three years, with no option for renewal. This will generate $6,045 plus GST in annual revenue for the county.
This was the second time this matter had come before council, which had debated the matter for over an hour at the March 23 meeting.
According to administration, the opportunity to bid on the hay licence had been advertised through the local papers in Barrhead and Whitecourt.
Two bids had been received, including one from the numbered company and one from Coun. Ron Govenlock, who held the lease previously, at $41.30 per acre plus GST.
Councillors questioned the timing of the hay licence, arguing that it should have been advertised in the fall and that switching it over now would put undue pressure on the previous licence-holder.
Several motions were put forward and defeated, though they did agree to table the matter to the next council meeting.
On April 14, director of infrastructure Andre Bachand told council (minus Govenlock, who excused himself due to his pecuniary interest) that administration had sought a legal opinion on what should happen now that council was deadlocked on the matter.
Based on the legal response, Bachand said that council effectively had two options: to award the hay licence to 1775023 Alberta Ltd. or to cancel the hay licence process for 2021 altogether.
He said that in the absence of any disclosed criteria for evaluating bids, the highest compliant bidder must be awarded the licence.
The only legitimate basis for selecting Govenlock’s bid would be if the numbered company’s bid was “materially non-compliant,” meaning the bid was incomplete, no bid deposit was provided, the bid was received after the deadline, etc.
Coun. Bruce Prestidge then put forward the motion to award the hay licence to the numbered company.
Coun. Dale McQueen asked whether or not this hay licence had been advertised as going to the highest bidder in the Barrhead and Whitecourt papers or if that part had been included in the bid package. He also asked who was present at the opening of the bids.
Bachand said that was not something they put in any of their bid packages as Woodlands County reserves the right to award or reject any bids. He also clarified that himself and director of corporate services Alicia Bourbeau was present for the opening of bids.
McQueen echoed his comments from the March 23 meeting that this was “probably the sloppiest RFD (request for decision) I’ve ever seen.”
He asked why they weren’t provided of how other municipalities handled similar licensing arrangements, adding that it took him only a few seconds to find examples online from Strathcona County and Parkland County.
He also questioned why Bachand had never informed council that the numbered company had been hired by Woodlands County in the past to do work in different areas. He also pointed out that this was not a forestry company but a company that did mulching.
“And lo and behold, we need mulching done at the airport. It just seems awfully coincidental how some of this stuff come together,” McQueen said.
He also stated the part that bothered him the most about this process is how he and Coun. Dale Kluin were “slammed” in a letter from a resident that appeared in the April 13 edition of the Town & Country Today.
“It really burns me up that our credibility is being challenged ... because someone really dropped the ball in administration,” he said.
McQueen said he didn’t care to whom the licence was awarded – he just wanted the process to be straight and fair.
“This has almost become a personal, vindictive thing that’s happening within this council. And the public’s seeing it at every meeting. And it’s an embarrassment,” he said.
Kluin said that it didn’t feel like council had any choice but award the licence to the numbered company.
However, he wanted to know exactly how and when the county will fix what happened here so it doesn’t occur again, stressing the need for a policy on lease-land agreements.
