The long-awaited regional collaboration report is out and some municipal leaders are in favour, while others are still on the fence.
Transitional Solutions Inc. (TSI) came out with a series of recommendations for the Town of Westlock, Westlock County and the Village of Clyde to work together, focusing on the region’s economic development and promotion, bylaw enforcement, water and waste, recreation services, fire services and the Westlock Airport.
All regional leaders agreed discussions would probably happen after the Oct. 16 municipal election.
Village of Clyde mayor Doug Nyal, speaking on behalf of himself and not council, said combining and sharing services would greatly benefit the village and make for a better working relationship among the three municipalities.
“I’m 100 per cent behind all of that,” he said. “I support all that. Personally, I’m aware it’s going to cost the village a little bit of money to collaborate with the other two municipalities — more than what we’re paying now — but I understand the need for shared services and I support the sharing of services.”
He added that he supported getting those funds from taxpayers if it was within the village’s financial scope.
“The other collaboration work we do as three municipalities, when it’s time to share the funding, we’ve always been able to and supported the formula we’ve been using,” he said. “I don’t see any of that really changing drastically. As a village and as a council we could probably support those discussions.”
Westlock County reeve Don Savage said he’s not sure where he stands on the report but thought it favoured the town and village.
“In its original form, I thought TSI did a good job, but they have made significant changes to appease their own thoughts towards the individual municipalities,” he said.
However, he said the report is positive, but there must be a will to follow through with recommendations.
“I believe there has to be a long-term solution put in place for all of these,” he continued.
“Long-term plans are very important. There’s some things that you would like to do but some of them take five years to change — you do it in phases.”
Town of Westlock mayor Ralph Leriger said the changes to the report were to correct inaccuracies and omissions about numbers, noting that it was a working document to help move the region forward.
On top of that, he said the tax burden has largely been on town residents because, as an urban centre, Westlock is the place where residents from around the area come to receive services.
“This is the end of the first step and it has been a long and arduous process,” Leriger said. “I would say that there are some potential opportunities in the recommendation. Whether or not those opportunities come to fruition is entirely dependent on the ability of the regional partners to work together. And that, quite frankly, is dependent on the electorate.”
Working relationships
The report found that the three municipalities worked well together on bylaw enforcement and fire protection, but not so well in other areas.
“The same cannot be said at the political level where lack of trust and elements of political posturing were observed,” the report said.
“Each council, as stewards of the public purse for their constituents, have developed different philosophical biases which more often than not conflict.”
Savage said bad working relationships could be found around Alberta, in neighbouring Town of Barrhead and County of Barrhead, and the Town of Athabasca and Athabasca County.
“There’s an election coming and maybe there’ll be some change in governance,” he said.
Leriger noted that in this region, bad working relationships have been longstanding and that needed to change.
“It’s more philosophical in nature,” he said. “Putting regional development strategies together and how those things are mutually beneficial and working together to drive an economic strategy for the entire area.”
