Westlock councillors, from the town and county alike, have expressed dismay that the Village of Clyde chose not to buy into the Westlock Municipal Library at a meeting earlier this month.
This is not surprising. In a relatively small region like this one, in which municipalities are forced to rely on each other and cooperate to provide essential services to their residents, it can be incredibly frustrating when one municipality refuses to get on board and pay their fair share. This is exactly what’s been happening with the library. The library is funded, for the most part, through annual contributions from member municipalities. The municipalities ostensibly recognize that while not every resident will use this facility, it is a valuable service that is worth paying for.
Clyde residents have had access to this facility for years without the village paying for the service. Essentially, town and county residents have been subsidizing Clyde residents with respect to library use.
Town and county councillors are justifiably upset by the village’s recent decision to decline becoming involved in the system. Yet, it was without a hint of irony that county councillors expressed frustration about the village’s decision.
“If they don’t pay, we do,” county Coun. Mike Cook said at the Oct. 25 council meeting.
Funny, that’s what many have been saying about the county’s refusal to get behind the Spirit Centre project or provide their fair share of recreation funding, despite the fact that at least half the users of these facilities are county residents.
“If they don’t pay, we do,” any town resident could reasonably say.
This is not to say the county does nothing for the region as a whole. Council’s decision to borrow on behalf of the Westlock Foundation to finance the Pembina Lodge expansion will save member municipalities more than $1 million. However, the town may well have contributed more to this endeavour had it not been bogged down in millions of dollars of debt for the Spirit Centre. Besides which, the foundation will pay the county all the debt servicing costs, so it’s not like it’s money taken off the county’s ledgers.
There are many different projects and organizations in the region that serve all of us, and we should all be paying our fair share.
