Chris Clegg
Town of High Prairie Councillor Judy Stenhouse likes to justify spending on what she calls measurements.
That is, she prefers to see solid evidence that whatever council spends money on is working. The problem is, most times, it is impossible to measure accurately the benefits council invests in.
Case in point. A few years ago, a local council justified its annual trip across the country at great expense to the local taxpayer. Upon their return they bragged about a federal grant they received, crediting the money spent on the trip to the east as they reason they got the grant.
The real truth is another local municipality (the M.D. of Smoky River) received money from the exact same grant program and in fact send nobody down east.
Recently, two new groups have surfaced. Through different requests, both want money to operate.
The first is the Slave Lake Regional Tourism Society. They plan to promote tourism on a regional level. Both Big Lakes County and Town of High Prairie have joined.
The second is the Alberta Mid-Sized Towns Mayors’ Caucus, formed to promote the interests of Alberta’s small towns with populations of 1,000 to 15,000, Apparently, there are 84 towns in Alberta that qualify.
There are many who believe “if you ain’t trying, you’re dying” when it come to economic development. Certainly, to sit on your behinds and do nothing doesn’t work.
However, with two new organizations to join and spend more of taxpayers’ money, the question needs to be asked, how many is too many when it come to joining organizations?
High Prairie and Big Lakes County, as well as all other municipalities in Alberta, are members of provincial organizations. Rural areas have the strong voice of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta whereas towns and cities have Alberta Municipalities. Being the big dog in the house, it is imperative all councils be a member.
In addition, we have the Northern Alberta Mayor’s Caucus. The Northern Alberta Development Council used to be a lobby voice for the north but is so quiet lately I wonder if it even exists.
We also have MPs and MLAs who are supposed to lobby for us. All funded by the taxpayers.
So, if the provincial association, Northern Alberta Mayor’s Caucus, MLA, MP, tourism groups and economic alliances are not enough, isn’t it fair to ask the question: “Are we getting good value for what we spend?”
The regional tourism group is a good example of what might go wrong. High Prairie has been screwed over more than once by tourism societies it has been a part of including Slave Lake. Remember, High Prairie had the tourism head office at one time but it was moved to Slave Lake. Slave Lake also used the Golden Walleye Classic to promote their town without a mention of the west end of lake. Nice! It didn’t stop the Slave Lake reps from taking our money and using it to promote other interests.
Certainly, it does not mean such shenanigans will happen this time. Different people are involved and the west end of the lake can only hope their agendas are fairer.
Meanwhile, the west end representatives chosen to serve Big Lakes County and the Town of High Prairie better keep a close watch on what is going on. Being silent and attending meetings just to collect a free lunch, honourarium, mileage and a cheque will not cut it.
This newspaper has long held the view rural Alberta gets screwed by Alberta’s cities. Heck, even Lesser Slave Lake MLA Scott Sinclair paid the price for telling the truth. If anyone thinks an Edmonton or Calgary MLA is working for us, they are sadly mistaken. We might get a few crumbs here and there but it’s Edmonton and Calgary that get the entire loaf of bread.
“Smaller towns don’t have the access to the great big budgets that Calgary and Edmonton have so there’s a shortage of money for infrastructure and all of that, that we need,” Town of Claresholm Councillor Kandice Meister said.
“This is an advocacy group to fight for small towns to get, I would say, not more than their fair share, but a fair share,” she added.
To join even more organizations given the unsuccessful history of many in the past is a risk. It just may be risk worth taking.
Stenhouse, however, is not sold. Time will tell if she is right, but perhaps to try and fail is better than to not try at all.