Town Council debates Whitecourt-Woodlands Agreements

By Ashley Clementovich

Whitecourt Town Council’s only meeting of July was ripe with heavily worded motions and further discussions around the current state of agreements between the Town and Woodlands County.

Director of Community Safety, Doug Tymchyshyn, and Fire Chief Brian Wynn provided council with an update on the Ariel Platform Engine destined for the Whitecourt Fire Department. The engine was purchased on April 29, 2019 and should arrive in the summer or early fall of 2020. “This unit will give effective fire suppression and exposure protection during defensive fire operations,” said Tymchyshyn. He added the engine would also provide “reduced property damage, risk of injuries to firefighters related to fatigue, and… reduce our fire department on scene time.”

As Woodlands County made the decision to decline participating in the purchase making Whitecourt the sole purchaser of the engine, administration brought forth four possible options for the future of the engine use to council. These were only in town, only within town and to mutual aid partners, within town and contracted private property, within town and fee for service requests.

Tymychyshyn reported the total response time for fire calls at just less than 19,000 hours between 2014-2018. These hours were divided almost evenly between the town and county with 49 per cent within the town, and 51 per cent within the county. Chief Wynn noted that the county is covered within 20 km of Whitecourt, a radius that Councillor Pickard noted contains 75 per cent of the county’s population.

“They have a budget of $1.5 million for fire… we billed them $260,000 last year. So 17 per cent of their budget comes to provide fire protection for 75 per cent or higher of their population, and 50 per cent of the calls go there, and they don’t pay for this, and they’ve withdrawn funding for this ladder truck,” Councillor Pickard confirmed with Chief Wynn.

 “We also provide rescue coverage for more than that area because the Anselmo and Blue Ridge fire departments don’t provide vehicle rescue,” added Chief Wynn.

Councillor Pickard delved further into the stats noting Whitecourt’s $1.6 million fire budget for 10, 204 people. “So, we pay $163 per person, and they’re paying $70 per person for people within 20 kms of Whitecourt… 73 per cent of their budget is going to the remaining portion of their population. So those other fire departments are collecting over $1.1 million. That means that they’re paying $1,105 per person for everybody else,” finished Councillor Pickard.

Council did not have any other alternatives to suggest in addition to the four original suggestions brought forth by administration and accepted the report as information.

The mayor and council commented once again on the recent cancellation of the Tax Revenue Sharing Agreement by Woodlands County. There was great emphasis made on the significance of the agreement which allowed the two municipalities to plan without borders. “If we do have borders now, we will have to be funding for an expansion of the Whitecourt borders,” said CAO Smyl. “To date, we have not received any material or information on the hardship regarding it.”

“I really question what the long-term advantage to the region is of cancelling this agreement when this has the potential to make Whitecourt and Woodlands a real industrial heartland of Alberta,” added Councillor Schlosser.

As laid out in the report, annually Whitecourt transfers a total of $85,656 to Woodlands County, which in turn transfers a sum of $114,864 to the Town of Whitecourt, leaving the town with a net benefit of $29,238.

“As a mayor who has done extensive travelling to promote our community… it’s been based on the philosophy of this agreement. We’ve gone and the first thing we tell everybody is that we’re two communities, one future, and we plan without borders,” said Mayor Chichak.

“The numbers off the Alberta Government website show that the county has a total taxable assessment base of $2,404,564,570 and ours is $1,939,568,300,” reported Councillor Pickard.

Administration noted that council has yet to receive financial disclosure regarding current or anticipated growth positions or financials.

Towards the end of discussion, a motion was made by Councillor Pickard, “that the town of Whitecourt send a letter to reject Woodlands County’s attempt to terminate the 2010 Tax Revenue Sharing Agreement and request it reconsider its position. If the county does not reconsider its position on seeking to terminate the agreement, to require the county to provide current and projected financial information to support the county’s assertion that they have suffered an extreme situation which causes significant and material financial hardship.” The motion was carried unanimously.

Council moved on to discuss the motion on terminating the Water and Wastewater Agreement made at the prior meeting on June 24 which was tabled for the July 15 meeting. Throughout the discussion, the mayor and council reiterated that the Tax Revenue Sharing Agreement and the Water and Wastewater Agreement were bound together.

Councillor Schlosser requested tabling the motion to the August 26 meeting which was carried.

After a brief closed session to seek legal advice regarding the Water and Wastewater agreement, Councillor Hilts made a motion, “that town council direct administration to send a letter to the county requesting that it confirms its position with respect to linear tax sharing as it’s linked to the town provision of water services to the county under the 2013 Water and Wastewater Agreement, and that the town requires a response confirming their position by August 21 of 2019.”

Such a confirmation from the county would change the linear sharing to zero from the 10.4 per cent of the county’s total linear assessment transferred to the Town of Whitecourt.

“I think it’s important before we make that decision that we are linking the two components of the agreement, the linear and the water, they go together,” said Councillor Hilts. The motion was passed unanimously.

A further motion was made by Councillor Schlosser for administration to create an information package on the tax sharing agreement, cost sharing agreement, and the water and wastewater agreement to be shared on social media and the Whitecourt website. The motion was carried unanimously.