About eight out of 10 St. Albert residents oppose Edmonton having a veto at the Capital Region Board, suggests a new survey, but a local scholar says there are few real alternatives to it.
Abingdon Research, a Vancouver-based polling company, released the results of a poll question about the Capital Region Board (CRB) earlier this week.
The question was part of a larger poll done by the firm, reports Abingdon vice-president Garnett Genuis, and was commissioned by a local realtor who wished to remain anonymous.
The province created the CRB in 2008 to regulate development in the Edmonton region, and gave it power over projects that have regional impact. Such projects must be supported by at least 17 board members representing at least 75 per cent of the region's population before they can go forward.
Since Edmonton has about 70 per cent of the region's people, it has an effective veto at the CRB.
The survey, held between Sept. 5 and 16, asked 300 St. Albert residents if Edmonton should have the ability to veto projects in St. Albert, Genuis said. Eight per cent of respondents said yes, 84 per cent said no, and eight per cent weren't sure.
Experts weigh in
Edmonton has yet to veto any motion from St. Albert at the board and has vetoed about five motions from anyone in board history, said St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse.
Crouse said the board's current voting model was the best option available.
"I don't think that Wabamun and Thorsby can have the same voting power as Edmonton," he said.
This structure means that Edmonton needs the help of at least 16 neighbours to get its way, too, he noted.
With Edmonton growing, St. Albert has to either work with its largest neighbour or get swallowed up, Crouse said.
"They're the biggest player in the region," he said. "Why wouldn't we want to work with Edmonton?"
St. Albert mayoral candidate Shelley Biermanski said she opposes Edmonton's veto as it takes power away from locally-elected governments.
"If people wanted to live in the City of Edmonton, they would have lived in the City of Edmonton," she said.
Biermanski called for the elimination of the CRB.
"I believe that St. Albert could benefit far greater by just working with our neighbouring communities."
She also said the CRB had asked St. Albert to help pay for Edmonton's new arena and to buy land from Edmonton for St. Albert's southside park-and-ride.
The Gazette's records and Crouse contradicted these assertions.
Edmonton "did not once" ask the board to chip in cash for the arena, said Crouse, and the park-and-ride was St. Albert's initiative, not the board's.
"We wanted to have a park-and-ride," Crouse said.
(Last May, Edmonton asked for the board to support its request for a $25 million provincial grant from the province for the arena. The board, contrary to what was reported at the time, voted this non-binding motion down 16-8.)
Survey slammed
University of Alberta political science professor Jim Lightbody dismissed the survey as "dumb" and "bogus." Given past tensions over amalgamation, any question that implied Edmonton could control St. Albert would get a negative response from St. Albert, he said.
"I think the realtor (who commissioned this question) is pissed off because he had a boneheaded idea," Lightbody said.
But given the complexities of the capital region, Lightbody said there were few alternatives to the board and Edmonton's veto.
"You're dealing with a circus in which there's only one elephant," he said – Edmonton. "That is the stark reality."
Axe the veto, and Edmonton's neighbours (representing a fourth of the region's people) could outvote Edmonton (which has the rest).
This veto reflects a structural problem with the CRB, Lightbody said – one that usually isn't an issue.
"(The board) works because mostly no one notices what it's doing," he said.
So long as St. Albert's plans align with the board's goals, it can cut a deal with its members and have its way.
Hamilton-Wentworth's regional group foundered on the question of Hamilton's veto, he noted, and that lead to the region's amalgamation.
The survey is considered accurate to within six percentage points 19 times out of 20.
