With Emo and Alberton now on board, La Vallee will make a formal request to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to conduct two feasibility studies on potential mergers.
One will look at a possible merger of La Vallee and Alberton while the second will examine the possibility of a merger between Alberton, La Vallee, and Emo.
The studies will consider every available means the municipalities can cut costs–and all the implications of the proposed mergers.
“It encompasses cost-saving pure and simple,” Alberton Reeve Judy Koski said after council there passed a pair of resolutions in favour of going ahead with the studies at its monthly meeting last Wednesday.
Emo already had approved the study looking at merging with La Vallee and Alberton.
The municipalities were spurred into action as a result of provincial downsizing over the past few years, which has passed on costs that were formerly provincial ones onto the plates of municipal governments.
“I don’t think the real cost-savings are in this part of the country,” noted Emo Reeve Brian Reid.
“It doesn’t appear that the government of Ontario is looking at this part of Ontario. There’s very few people and each community is different,” he noted.
But Reeve Reid admitted it’s better to come up with a made-in-Rainy River District solution rather than have the province impose one.
“If it was ever forced upon us, it would be the whole district. We have to look at it before we become a bigger body and we are dumped together with Dryden,” Reeve Reid stressed.
All three reeves insist the studies are just proposals and not a commitment to future amalgamation.
“Doing the cost study of it doesn’t mean you have to proceed with it,” said Reeve Reid. “To gain in a cost-effective manner would be the only reason for going forward with it.”
Still, all three reeves hinted the possibility is there.
“Most municipalities are quite comfortable with the way things are,” said La Vallee Reeve Ken McKinnon. “[But] that’s not to say that down the road the Ontario government won’t have a few things to say.
“The difficult thing is you never know if it’s ever going to happen,” he remarked.
The studies are being done to find amicable solutions before the province steps in.
“Nobody wants to give up anything, either. It has to be done in an agreeable way,” noted Reeve Reid.
About the only disagreement so far was a concern Fort Frances was not included in the studies. Alberton Coun. John Milling felt the best interest of the public was being ignored by leaving Fort Frances out.
“I strongly disagree with how were managing the amalgamation. I want to distance myself from how it is being done,” Coun. Milling said.
“I only disagree with the process. I view our job as the board of directors and the citizens are the shareholders and I think the citizens would like us to consider all the possibilities of a merger,” he argued.
While no one is officially declaring Fort Frances out of the picture, Reeve McKinnon said the town is very different from the other three municipalities.
“It doesn’t really fit with the rural municipalities. That’s why no one really considered them too seriously. You get into all the services,” he said.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
