A groundswell of support has emerged to investigate amalgamating the town and county of Westlock into a single municipality.
On July 18, more than 30 people attended a meeting at the Westlock Inn to discuss the idea, and hear from councillors from Lac La Biche County, which was formed in 2007 by amalgamating the Town of Lac La Biche and Lakeland County.
In the audience were seven elected Westlock representatives. From the county, reeve Charles Navratil and councillors Bert Seatter, Mike Cook and Ron Zadunayski were in attendance; Clem Fagnan and Darrel Erickson represented the town. Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec was also there.
Lac La Biche mayor Aurel Langevin and Ward 3 Coun. Guy Piquette spoke about the process the former municipalities took to merge, and took questions from the audience.
“Amalgamation works,” Langevin said. “It works very very well.”
He spoke about how merging the former municipalities had a long history in Lac La Biche. The issue came up in 1994 and again in 2004, but it wasn’t until 2006 that anything concrete happened.
Following an exhaustive study on the merits of amalgamation and how it would affect both municipalities, the issue was put to a vote via a plebiscite.
When all the votes were counted, Lakeland County residents voted 53 per cent in favour of amalgamating; Lac La Biche town residents voted overwhelmingly in favour at 93 per cent. However, only 30 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot.
Langevin said the hardest part of the whole process was, and continues to be, merging the two municipalities’ bylaws, services, taxes and other regular day-to-day goings on.
Piquette said for any municipality wishing to go through with the amalgamation process, it’s critical that the goals of the move are made clear from the beginning.
“Do not be afraid to share information,” he said, adding it’s better to give out too much information than only the bare essentials.
During the entire process, he said most of the time should be spent on planning so that everything is in place if amalgamation is approved.
In addition, Piquette said amalgamation is only possible if the people buy into it. They need to understand what is going on, and why, as well as recognize the benefits that come with being part of a larger municipality.
Among those benefits is the ability to speak with one voice at the provincial level instead of two. Another is having the financial muscle of multiple municipalities now under one roof.
Langevin said for all the benefits, the potential cost savings won’t materialize to the degree many hope for.
“You won’t save on workforce,” he said.
Prior to Langevin and Piquette speaking, Ron Riopel, a member of the informal committee that organized the meeting, spoke about the committee’s hope to get the amalgamating question on the ballot for this fall’s election.
Following the presentation, Fagnan asked what Langevin and Piquette thought of the committee’s proposed timeline. They both replied this fall was too soon to amalgamate the town and county. However, if the ballot question was only to determine the level of interest in amalgamation, this fall would not be too soon.
Cook said he was one of many people who feel having 19 elected representatives across the town, county and Village of Clyde representing close to 13,000 people just doesn’t work.
Although he is not running in the election, Cook said he agrees the first step should be to commission a study on the merits and feasibility of amalgamation.
Navratil cautioned the audience that amalgamation won’t make their taxes go down because there is no large industrial base in either the town or county from which to derive significant tax revenues.
Larry Strilchuk, another member of the informal committee, said merging the town and county is something that should happen soon, and by choice, referring to Langevin’s comment that he believes the province could be forcing municipalities to amalgamate in the future.
Moving forward, there is no set timeline for amalgamation, said committee member Wayne Forbes. Compiling the amalgamation study is an important first step, but more facts are required before anything concrete happens.
