Alberton councillors were content at their monthly meeting last Wednesday night to let La Vallee send in its request to the province to do a financial impact analysis for the two communities if they opted to amalgamate.
The discussion didn’t come up until around midnight after one of the five councillors had left due to illness. And Reeve Judy Koski said councillors mulled over the issue for about an hour before coming up with their decision.
“It didn’t actually come down to a vote,” she said, noting no resolution was passed by council. But she had talked to La Vallee Reeve Ken McKinnon before the meeting and that “La Vallee was going to send in the request on behalf of us.”
“All the municipalities don’t have to send in a request [to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs],” noted Reeve Koski.
The cost of the financial impact analysis will be covered by the ministry, saving Alberton and La Vallee residents about $50,000.
But at least one councillor would like to see Alberton do more than one study. Coun. John Milling would like the municipality to look at a broader scope of choices for amalgamation partners than just La Vallee.
“The trouble, as I see it, with only getting the information impact study with one municipality is that the people will only have two options to choose from,” he explained.
“The options being to merge with the one municipality we have provided information on or to not merge.
“But the government has indicated to not merge is not an option,” he added. “So we will, in effect, be taking any ability of our citizens of making a real choice away from them.”
Coun. Milling stressed he wasn’t for or against amalgamating with La Vallee, or any other municipality for that matter. But he believed doing only one cost study did not provide enough information for residents to make a proper decision.
“As a councillor, I have no idea what this information will expose [but] there’s no reason to be afraid of information–even if it’s information you don’t want to hear,” he argued.
“My personal view is this decision is too significant for the five of us to make,” he added.
“If we restrict the people’s options at the outset, the five of us by extension are deciding the fate of the community, and that’s too much,” he remarked.