Annexation bid sparks battle of the billboards
Call it the battle of the billboards.
They ’re just a jaunt apart, on the Trans-canada Highway east of Regina. The messaging in the slogans is hard to distinguish. They even rhyme.
“One Community, One Voice,” reads one. “Our Communities, Our Choice,” says the other.
But the Rural Municipality of Edenwold tells the passing motorist exactly what that choice is about: “ANNEXATION”
The RM is hitting back at the town of White City with a new publicity offensive, as debate heats up over plans to expand the town’s borders to encompass neighbouring communities like Emerald Park and Park Meadow Estates.
The push follows months of White City’s own efforts, which include a series of pro-annexation videos featuring local luminaries like recently appointed Senator Marty Klyne.
But RM administrator Kim Mcivor says he now wants to present “our facts.”
“It’s coming out with the message we’ve been receiving from our ratepayers,” said Mcivor. “We’ve got overwhelming response and feedback from our residents that they ’re not in favour of such an annexation attempt.”
The RM has hosted four town hall meetings and just launched a website warning about the perceived perils of annexation. It says the plan could lead to higher taxes, spiralling utility bills, less frequent garbage pickup and financial insecurity.
White City Mayor Bruce Evans called many of those arguments “a little bit of a red herring.” He said the town has a third-party study showing there would be little financial impact on ratepayers.
“People can make their own decisions based on the facts, not based on intimidation and scare tactics,” Evans said.
But the facts seem open to dispute. That same study says tax rates will depend on what lands the city acquires.
The two sides have wildly different estimates for how much compensation White City will have to pay the RM if the plan goes through. Mcivor puts it at over $30 million, Evans at far less.
They also differ — again, wildly — over the level of public support for the annexation plan.
White City has a survey from an outside polling group that found 71 per cent of area respondents think annexation is “a good idea.” It suggests that support is much higher in the town proper, but still a majority in the areas it wants to take over.
Mcivor countered with the results of exit surveys conducted at the RM’S town halls. He said 81 per cent of respondents opposed the plan.
The relationship between the two neighbouring municipalities has become badly frayed over the dispute. Evans said they haven’t even managed to sit down and talk about it since he announced the proposal in May.
“We had hoped right from the beginning that we could sit down and discuss these issues,” said Evans. “We haven’t got a positive response yet.”
He said the town has formed a group of councillors to represent it at the negotiating table.
“We’ve been waiting for the RM be provide us with similar nominees,” he said. “They’ve declined to do so.”
Mcivor says he has doubts about whether the town is ready for “good faith negotiations.” He noted that the RM only learned about the annexation plan hours before word went out to the media.
“We’re very disappointed that they chose to do this behind closed doors, back-doored us at the last minute, and gave us no heads up,” he said.
If the RM keeps up its objections, White City’s plan will have to go to a mediator. If that can’t settle the matter, the dispute will head to the Saskatchewan Municipal Board for a decision. The town expects that process to continue late into 2019.
Evans says annexation is about providing a unified voice for what is, in effect, a single community. He said it will lead to more democratic representation and a greater ability to pay for services that benefit all area residents.
“Our kids go to the same schools, we buy groceries at the same grocery store, our kids play on the same sports teams,” he said. “But there are nagging issues about who you pay your taxes to, and how much representations you have on the council.”
But Mcivor said the RM has always been willing to work with its neighbours. He said the proposed annexation would “totally change the dynamics” of the RM by robbing it of 40 per cent of its tax base. He said the RM is “proud” of what it has built — and the services that revenue make possible.
“We’ve created this diverse tax base so we can have very forward, progressive thinking,” he said. “We’ll lose all that.”
Instead of annexation, he suggested a municipal district or planning authority to coordinate between the two jurisdictions.
That’s where Evans questions the RM’S good faith. He said White City has pushed for precisely that kind of model before, only to have the RM thwart its efforts at every step. The RM has pulled out of a museum board, a parks and recreation board, a fire commission and a regional planning committee, according to Evans.
“Those are all things that we established to do, what they’re now proposing as the solution,” he said.
“We have bent over backwards, frankly, to try to work co-operatively with the RM.”
Mcivor said he isn’t giving up on a solution, but he’s adamant that annexation remains a non-starter for the RM.
“We’ll be defending our ratepayers against a takeover they’re not interested in.”