Last week, the County of Barrhead helped welcome the canoers involved in the Athabasca River Brigade to Fort Assiniboine.
Or more accurately they welcomed the people who attended the final welcoming ceremony with a free barbecue lunch. And while we commend them for contributing to the event we wonder why they chose this event and not others.
For the last number of years it has been county council’s unofficial-official policy that it doesn’t contribute to the operating costs of events. Multiple councillors on multiple occasions have reiterated that this is the county’s philosophy.
And we have seen council put this philosophy to practice turning down many community groups and service clubs requesting funding. The vast majority being those located in town and which serve the residents of the County of Barrhead.
Here they decided to say yes for an event in Woodlands County.
Don’t get us wrong, we are glad councillors decided to contribute to what is potentially a once in a lifetime event, for not only the residents of Fort Assiniboine, but Barrhead as well.
All we are saying, is that by doing so, in our minds it makes it hard each time county councillors do something that seemingly goes against that philosophy it gets harder to justify, especially, as in this case, it could be argued that the majority of the residents who benefited from the funding live outside the municipalities boundaries.
Take in point, town council’s most recent request to chip in and help fund to add to the storage facilities at the curling club. It certainly can be argued that this addition is unnecessary and that the county didn’t have any say before the town approved the expenditure, but what can’t be argued is that any improvements made to the curling rink will benefit county residents. The town’s latest statistics show more than 60 per cent of curling rink users reside in the county.
That being said, the issue of recreational funding will be settled through the municipal affairs binding arbitration process that is expected to come before October’s municipal election.
One area that is related to recreation, but only partially, where we would like to see the county contribute to, similarly to the voyageur celebration, is Canada Day. It is no secret, that we believe the celebrations, marking our country’s founding have been too understated for our liking.
Yes, it is true that Neerlandia puts on its own July 1 festivities, and this year’s were truly wonderful, especially considering the size of the community, but there really are not a lot of festivities in the county on Canada Day for residents. So why not join forces for a truly grand celebration?
How about it?
