There is no September deadline for members of the Capital Region Board to start getting along, but local mayors still say something needs to be fixed.
Despite a story in Monday’s Edmonton Journal stating the 24-member board had until September to get their act together or face amalgamations imposed by the province, a spokesperson for Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths said that was not Griffiths’ intent.
“There is no specific timeline,” said Kathleen Range. “The minister might have just thrown that out as an example.”
While Mayor Nolan Crouse, who is also chair of the Capital Region Board, suggested that might have been the case, he said the board does have to improve how it functions.
Accusations of political posturing and holding certain projects in other communities hostage have dogged the board of late. Rural counties were livid when Edmonton – the largest city on the board – used its voting power to scuttle the Villeneuve area structure plan last year and a recent proposed expansion of the Acheson Industrial Area by Parkland County. Edmonton has, in turn, accused other members of holding Edmonton Horse Hills development hostage.
Crouse said he believes such manoeuvring does take place.
“I would suggest we have a lot of work to do,” said Crouse. “I would agree there are some political overtones in it but it is politics at the regional level.”
The board will take some steps to address that. On Monday the board’s governance committee recommended abolishing the CAO sub-committee that reviews all proposed plans. The practice has been that, if all five CAOs support the plan, it is approved, but if any one dissents the plan is sent to the full board for a vote.
That has led to some problems. Twice in the last 12 months, after objecting to changes to St. Albert’s municipal development plan concerning its employment lands, Sturgeon County’s CAO withheld his approval and delayed approval by a few weeks each time. The sub-committee presently can’t get enough CAOs together to approve Horse Hills, which has led to accusations of political posturing.
Coun. Cathy Heron, who sits on the governance committee, said the move to replace the sub-committee with a third-party consultant should smooth out the process, but it won’t solve everything.
“There are bigger issues that need to be resolved in the region,” Heron said. “On Thursday, one of the municipalities, one of the smaller ones, said they just didn’t seen any benefit from sitting (on the board) and asked Griffiths if at some point they could be removed and he said no.”
Whoever that municipality was, they have local allies. Since its inception Sturgeon County Mayor Don Rigney has railed against the Capital Region Board. He heaps the blame for the region’s woes on Edmonton and its ongoing complaints about propping up the rest of the region.
“I’m getting a little tired of this,” Rigney said. “We’ve done just as much to build the region and promote things as anyone. It’s been the City of Edmonton that’s held things up.”
The Gazette was unable to reach Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel before its press deadline.
Giving Edmonton an effective veto on the board was particularly onerous, Rigney said, and has left rural communities feeling their concerns aren’t even considered in decision making.
“I have no problem with anything imposed on their boundaries but when they can veto anything in the region, that’s problematic,” Rigney said.
A solution, however, appears elusive. Morinville Mayor Paul Krauskopf was unsure, saying he’d be a hero if he had the answers. Rigney can’t see a solution either. Crouse suggested more sub-regional projects could help unite the municipalities.
The province recently gave the board $500,000 and a deadline of June 2015 to update its growth plan. Crouse said that could involve re-examining everything from density to its voting model, but he hopes it will help unite the group.
“Part of me wishes I could go help solve some of the issues there as the board chair, but it’s kind of outside something I’m able to do and quite frankly I have a full-time job as mayor,” Crouse said.
