Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader
One of the last things Slave Lake town councillor Francesca Ward did before she resigned (so she can run for mayor) on Feb. 7 was to speak up in favour of a capital spending item. Against strong opposition from a couple of her colleagues, she came out in support of spending $1.5 million to extend sanitary sewer service into an industrial area on the west side of town.
Ward said she sees water and sewer as basic services, and providing them “puts everybody on a level playing field.”
Councillors Brice Ferguson and Steve Adams saw the matter in quite a different light, and were not shy about stating their views, at the Feb. 7 council meeting. However, the capital budget was accepted as proposed, by a 4 – 2 vote.
Adams led off the discussion by leaving no doubt where he stood on the $1.5 million sewer extension project.
“I don’t feel it should be funded by the town,” he said.
The property owners are direct beneficiaries of the project, he pointed out, and should be paying for it, not the taxpayers.
Ferguson spoke up in agreement. For one thing, he said, he doesn’t think the town has done its due diligence in determining how many property owners on the west of Caribou Trail will actually hook up to the new sewer line.
“I don’t think it’s good value,” he said.
Responded Ward: “I have the opposite opinion.” Other municipalities, she said, bear the burden of extending services, so as to attract development, etc.
“We’re talking about increasing our tax base.”
True, said Adams. But the proper way of going about basic service extensions is for developers to pay for them, and then they recoup the costs by way of higher-priced lots. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. In this case, the developer did not include those services, and the price of the lots was accordingly low. By the town saying it will pay the price, “we’re setting a precedent here I don’t think the town should be.”
Ward was unmoved. In the future we can hold developers to those standards, she said. This case, “is rectifying something that should have been completed in the first place.”
Ferguson: “They (the benefitting property owners) bought those properties knowing full well they were unserviced and thus a lower price. With services, the value of those properties is going to be drastically increased, by the general taxpayer.”
Adams called spending $1.5 million from town reserves “crazy.”
“I just feel this is important for the community,” said Ward. “Sometimes reserves need to be used.”
Other items on the capital list for 2023 include $975,000 (over three years) for refurbishment of the Multi Rec Centre, $850,000 (also over three years) for new software and $612,000 for a grader.
Ward made the motion to approve the capital budget as presented. She, councillors Kimberly Hughes, Julie Brandle and Shawn Gramlich voted in favour. Opposed were Adams and Ferguson.
