Local mayors need to knock it off with the turf wars and team up to build the Capital region, says Alberta’s minister of municipal affairs.
Doug Griffiths dropped by the Capital Region Board’s (CRB) monthly meeting Thursday at the Chateau Louis Hotel in Edmonton to urge local leaders to look beyond their borders and work together.
Board members have had a number of public spats in recent months. The board voted down the area structure plan for Villeneuve last year, for example, angering Sturgeon County. Edmonton also vetoed Parkland County’s plans to expand the Acheson Business Park earlier this year, sparking outrage as 20 of the board’s 24 members had supported it.
Board members have an obligation to future generations to build a better Capital region, Griffiths said.
“You’re here to build a strong Alberta, a strong Capital region,” he said. “This isn’t about protecting your territory or your turf and fighting over boundaries. It can’t be.”
We need cities to build up, not out, to preserve farmland, Griffiths said, and it’s counterproductive to have counties building up on city borders at the same time.
“That’s not success. You’ve got to have a co-ordinated plan.”
He urged the 24 leaders in the room to focus on the big picture, and to be “statesmen” rather than “politicians.”
“I’m not telling you that I’m going to smash you together,” he said, referring to rumours of a forced amalgamation. “I think it needs to happen organically.”
But board members seemed cool to Griffiths’s talk, with Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel calling it “a bit altruistic.”
The board also voted against a move to develop a geographic information system for the region later in the meeting after Griffiths left. Such a system has been in the works for years and was seen as key for effective planning in the region.
The move frustrated board chair and St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse, as board members have previously collaborated on many other sub-regional projects.
“The big pumping station on Sturgeon Road? … That’s being paid for by 13 municipalities,” he said.
The board already has a system in place to let members chip in for regional projects, he noted, but no one has used it yet due to a lack of political will.
“It could be used in the right project.”
He did not consider projects such as the proposed Edmonton downtown arena or the interchange at 41 Avenue to be regional projects that St. Albert should be supporting through the CRB, he added, referring to a recent news article that implied he did.
Bill Nimmo, the mayor of Gibbons, told Griffiths that, as head of a small rural community, he felt “useless” at the CRB.
“I’m not from a big enough community to get listened to,” he said.
He added in an interview that Gibbons had little to say on issues like regional LRT systems. Meanwhile, cities like Edmonton had the power to veto the plans of Gibbons.
“We need an attitude change,” he told Griffiths.
But the board can find support for the senior’s homes and special transit services that places like Gibbons and Redwater need, Crouse said.
“Their LRT is their senior’s bus.”
The CRB is now updating its growth plan, Crouse said, which he hoped will encourage its members to work together.
“St. Albert and Sturgeon will benefit tremendously from this discussion,” he added, as it will force them to co-operate.
Borders can be changed, Griffiths said, and he would gladly consider bringing in new ideas such as combined municipalities for towns and counties.
“I don’t give a damn about municipal boundaries,” he said. “I care about communities.”
