Westlock’s political leaders spoke last week about the goings-on in Barrhead, and while they did not pass judgment on the town’s decision to force the county into amalgamation talks, they did sympathize and offer words of suggestions.
On Sept. 9, Barrhead town council passed a motion to begin the amalgamation process through the Alberta Municipal Governance Act, effectively unilaterally forcing Barrhead County to the table.
In Westlock, while amalgamation has been discussed to varying degrees over the years, things have never got to the point where one municipality has forced the issue.
“My personal opinion is that amalgamation co-operatively, or working together co-operatively, which is what the town and ourselves are attempting to do, is certainly much better than forced amalgamation,” said Westlock County reeve Bud Massey.
Attempting to force one municipality to the table is unwise, he added, as it could create “a lot of hard feelings and may not have a positive outcome.”
The revelation the Town of Barrhead would force the county to sit down to start amalgamation talks was certainly a surprise.
“We were unaware it was going to hit the stove,” Massey said.
For Westlock mayor Ralph Leriger, he believes Barrhead town councillors didn’t necessarily want to go the route they did, but were forced into a corner.
“I guess at the end of the day, I think the town of Barrhead’s motion is one borne out of frustration,” Leriger said.
That frustration has less to do with the specific interactions between the town and county, he suggested, and more to do with how the provincial government treats its urban municipalities compared to the rural municipalities.
From his perspective and experience, urban governments in Alberta are frustrated with how they are tasked with providing their citizens’ needs while hamstrung by inequitable funding models.
Some rural municipalities are sitting on savings accounts of tens of millions of dollars while having a very small population, he said.
“They can’t begin to spend their money, and yet our system is having the effect of creating areas of regional disparity,” Leriger said.
It all comes down to finding a way to fairly share the money generated through linear assessments, he said, as that money is the direct result of the natural resources Alberta is blessed with.
“I believe those resources belong to all Albertans and not just a few of them,” he said.
What happened in Barrhead may only be the tip of the iceberg, Leriger suggested. A “broken relationship” between the province and its municipalities, consisting of sporadic, condition-laden funding, could lead more municipalities to force the conversation in order to protect their best interests.
Amalgamation in Westlock remains a possibility, but the current goal is to see how well the town and county can work together as separate entities to enhance the lives of all residents.
To that end, the town, county and Village of Clyde applied for and were granted $250,000 earlier this year to go towards setting up a regional collaboration framework.
In July, the three councils agreed to work on four different initiatives as part of that collaboration framework: community growth, community services, regional utilities, and airport governance and management options.
However, it has not been an especially easy process. Although all three municipalities, for the most part, serve the same people, the issues they have to deal with individually are different.
“We’re working through those things, talking through those things, trying to understand those things, and it’s progressing,” Massey said.
