GROWTH Alberta is losing the member organization that is responsible for its creation, as Pembina Hills trustees voted unanimously last Wednesday to withdraw from the organization on Jan. 1, 2016.
At the May 27 meeting in Barrhead, trustee Jennifer Tuininga said they need more people to move into the area in order to grow school enrolment and while GROWTH has done some work around that front, they’re also focused on tourism, which only brings in people for the short term.
“I think that, although GROWTH is doing some great things, there has been the potential there for more,” Tuininga said.
Ultimately, the annual school expo — a career fair that alternates between Barrhead and Westlock — is the only initiative GROWTH is involved in that relates to education, she said.
Trustee Annette Bokenfohr added that when trustees consider the division’s budget, there are other things that can benefit students more directly than GROWTH.
Tuininga also noted that their membership fees — which come to about $6,070 yearly before expenses relating to travelling to meetings — are as high, or higher than, what other GROWTH members pay as the fees are population-based.
She noted they can continue their relationships with local municipal leaders, but they will just do it outside of GROWTH.
After some debate about the date their membership fees are paid up to, Bokenfohr pushed for the division to remain members until the end of 2015, noting that financial arrangements had already been made for the school expo this fall.
“If they’ve already organized the expo for October and our students go to that, so we should honour that and stay in until Jan. 1,” she said.
Trustees voted 5-0 to rescind their membership — trustees Sheri Watson and Kim Webster were absent.
When contacted on Friday, GROWTH Alberta president Chad Merrifield said, “It’s unfortunate, for sure, that they’ve decided to go that direction right now.”
Merrifield said when he spoke to one of the trustees afterward, he understood that their decision was due in large part to frequent uncertainty with provincial funding.
With the province’s announcement of an additional $103 million in education funding on Thursday, Merrifield suggested that perhaps they will reconsider withdrawing their membership before Jan. 1.
“We will definitely welcome them back should they change their mind,” he added.
When asked about the impact on GROWTH Alberta, Merrifield said they are a sizeable contributor in terms of membership fees, but the bigger impact was not having them at the table anymore.
“One of the big things that GROWTH does is it allows for the relationships to be built between the municipalities and the school boards so that when issues come up, we already have an understanding of who we are as individuals and as a group … (and) we can work together to find positive solutions,” he said.
“The funding side of things is less of an impact as is (not) having them at the table.”
GROWTH Alberta was originally founded in 2001 and is one of 11 Regional Economic Development Authorities (REDAs) in the province, according to Alberta Innovation and Advanced Education’s website.
Pembina Hills was not only one of the founding members of GROWTH, but also the organization that spearheaded its creation.
Former Pembina Hills chairman Clayton Jespersen, who was on the board at the time, said the trustees were concerned about declining school enrolment.
He said they saw the handwriting on the wall for a number of schools, and some of those schools have faced closure in the intervening years.
The solution was to bring in more people to the area — ultimately, a trustee suggested during board planning to get involved in economic development, he said.
Jespersen said they brought together municipalities and helped organize the creation of the REDA.
“It was kind of earth-shaking, because school divisions don’t usually lead the way in these kinds of things,” he said. “But we thought there was an opportunity to make a difference in the area.”
The creation of GROWTH ultimately led to the development of the school expo.
Originally, local businesses could come to the expo to talk about opportunities in the area, but it grew over time so that a number of outside agencies could attend the career fair.
Pembina Hills is one of two school divisions which are members in GROWTH, with the other being the Evergreen Catholic Separate Regional Division.
