Village of Clyde councillors have publicly responded to the timeline for the next stages of the municipalities’ viability review.
They got their chance at a special meeting with Alberta Municipal Affairs held on Thursday, March 19, which was followed by a private session with council and Municipal Affair.
“They way you (Municipal Affairs) rolled it out is very much, just not exactly, the way we thought the process would take place,” said mayor Doug Nyal.
The timeline for the review only gives residents an opportunity to be involved in the process should council choose to dissolve the village and join Westlock County.
That didn’t seem to sit well with some councillors who proposed the idea of having a public vote on the issue.
“Is there an opportunity for council to say we believe we can meet the goals that the minister has laid out for us, but we want a mandate from the (people of the) village before we say that’s what we’re going to do?” Nyal asked.
“Because if we don’t have the mandate from the ratepayers, no matter what decision we make, we’ve got this ongoing confrontation within the village all the time.”
However, Municipal Affairs representatives said that such an outcome was at the discretion of council and it would form part of its consultation process.
That means that should council hold a plebiscite and the results indicate that residents want to pursue joining with Westlock County, locals would then have to vote yet again to dissolve.
Councillors also took issue with other elements of the Viability Review Team’s findings, saying that many of the points raised were not unique to Clyde.
Among them was a belief that the village was taking steps to address issues with finances and that Westlock County, the municipality Clyde would be required to merge with, also didn’t operate its utilities at full-cost recovery.
Coun. Neil Olson pointed out that few municipalities would know the true state of their entire infrastructure
“The village does not know the overall condition of the village’s infrastructure … well that’s not entirely true because we do know some. We had a report done about four years ago and you could say that about any municipality in Alberta, not just Clyde,” he said.
Also raised during the meeting was a question about whether the current viability review would prevent this situation occurring in the future.
“If we decide we are going to stay as a village, how soon can somebody take another petition out and start the whole process over again?” Nyal asked.
The response from Municipal Affairs was clear.
“There’s nothing stopping a ratepayer from immediately starting another petition,” said Bill Diepeveen, chair of the Village of Clyde Viability Review Team.
The Viability Team is currently waiting for a review of the village’s assets before it can hand down a draft viability report.
Once that draft is completed it will go to both affected councils for feedback and after that it will be put to the village council for a decision.
Should they feel that remaining an independent municipality is the way to go, then councillors will have to implement orders from the minister.
If council chooses dissolution, the residents of Clyde will be consulted with before a dissolution vote.
