Brooks Councillor discusses possible amalgamation

“We’re an area of (about) 25,000 people and what we’re looking at doing is, instead of having all these separate municipalities out there, we thought collectively, if we all came together, we could work for the benefit of the entire region,” Petrie said.

“It’s hard to believe, but we have about 32 different council members and several different administrations, so we thought by coming together we would be able to save money and just sort of work collectively together. It’s easier when we all work together instead of one.”

Petrie noted that like many other smaller communities across North America, they have to fight more for economic development for their “long-term survival”. Discussions on that are made easier when working together instead of “trying to compete with each other”.

He explained that a plan has been discussed on how to bring the communities together, particularly when it comes to governance.

“At the (municipal) election (in 2021), we would have five councillors from the City of Brooks, five from the County of Newell and one from the Town of Bassano. The County of Newell would look at a ward system where it would be divided among the wards, for example, the Rolling Hills or the Tilley area, I don’t know exactly (what) the wards (are) there, they would have one representation. So that way, the people out in the County would still have representation – if something happened to the roads, they could go to their elected official there,” he said.

“In Brooks, we decided not to go with the ward system – we would just go with five councillors in Brooks. And, Bassano would have their own councillor there, too.”

He explained that a prospective mayor would essentially serve as Chairman of the Board for the amalgamated region and oversee the 11 representatives in each community.

He said electing a mayor within means that the mayoral duties could potentially change-over across a four-year term.

As far as a name for an amalgamated community, Petrie said that has not been decided on yet, but noted that ‘Brooks Region’ has been suggested.

Petrie said the hope is to have the entire plan laid out before the 2021 municipal election, adding that January 1, 2021 would be an ideal deadline.

“You’d want to have it done by January 1, 2021 if the election is in October of 2021 and then you could have your ward system set up, your plans for the election set up, plus you’d also want to have your administration and all that set up going into the next election.”

However, approval comes down to the provincial government. Petrie said the RWG is seeking feedback not only from residents, but Jason Kenney’s government as well.

“One of the main reasons why we’re doing this is to try and save tax dollars for everybody and we need the support of the government – if Jason Kenney is true to his word that he wants to save tax dollars we need his support. Really, if we don’t get the support of the provincial government, then maybe our efforts will be futile down the road,” he noted.

From a residential perspective, Petrie said there has been some feedback from some residents in the County of Newell.

“I know some of the push-back from some of the County of Newell residents is that they’re going to lose their identity but in a lot of cases, communities still have their heart and soul and don’t lose their identity. I certainly know around Calgary that say, Inglewood hasn’t lost their identity, Bowness hasn’t lost their identity, Forest Lawn hasn’t lost their identity, and Midnapore – they still keep their identity even though they’re into a big major municipality there,” he said.

“You know, like Coaldale is probably almost part of Lethbridge now too, and they haven’t lost their identity…so that’s sort of an analogy for Southern Alberta I can kind of give you on that.”

As a council or any regional group that stands to make decisions that will impact residents, Petrie said it can be challenging but it’s in their responsibility to bring these kinds of ideas forward.

“You have to look at all the different (issues). Taxation is a big issues, governance is a big issues, staffing is a big issue and identity as I talked about is an issue and that’s what we have to do as a Regional Working Group and we have to present that to everybody in Brooks, the County of Newell and Bassano and see what they think about it in the end.”

The Regionalization Working Group meets again next week.

by Justin Goulet

Brooks Councillor discusses possible amalgamation

What's Happening