Ratepayers Dispute Rejected Petition
By Joseph Quigley Mayerthorpe FreelancerTuesday, April 4, 2017 9:50:29 MDT AM
The ratepayers of Lac Ste. Anne County are disputing the denial of their petition to have Alberta Municipal Affairs investigate their county government.
The Lac Ste. Anne Ratepayers Association (LSARA) presented to its members about the dispute during its annual general meeting on March 21.
The association argues that municipal affairs failed to follow its own procedural guidelines when it rejected the petition, originally submitted by members of LSARA in October 2015, before the association formed.
Leann Knysh, vice-president of the association, said both the municipal and provincial levels of government are failing the ratepayers of Lac Ste. Anne.
“We are just trying to ensure that we have a fair and equitable system where we have a council looking out for people of the county and we have a back up system with municipal government to help us if we find irregularities. We are being failed by both unfortunately,” Knysh said.
Alberta Municipal Affairs denied the petition, created out of concern for how the County was proceeding with its new administrative building, due to failing to meet the threshold for signatures. The petition required 2,052 signatures — 20 per cent of the county population — to pass and although the petition included 2,543 signatures, 558 signatures were excluded by municipal affairs for a variety of reasons. These included information incongruent with the county tax roll and missing witness affidavits.
After making several information requests, LSARA received Alberta Municipal Affairs procedural guidelines for petition verification. Using those guidelines as a basis, the LSARA executive said municipal affairs had failed to properly review their petition.
For example, one of the guidelines said that if there are any missing witness affidavits, the petition representatives should be contacted to obtain copies. But Chris Yeoman and Knysh, who both represented the petition, said this never happened.
However, Alberta Municipal Affairs has since said the procedure they had sent LSARA was not in place until May 2016, several months after they reviewed the petition.
“Our department has reviewed the work done in October and November 2015 to review the Lac Ste. Anne County petition, and we stand by the results. When a petition is received, Municipal Affairs takes such matters very seriously. We have taken steps to improve our verification process, but these procedures are not retroactive to petitions reviewed before May 2016,” said Tim Seefeldt, communications director for Alberta Municipal Affairs.
But Yeoman, who now serves as president of LSARA, said she is not satisfied with the response and remains sure of the association's argument.
“We formally requested the process and were provided what we reference in our meeting,” Yeoman said. “For Municipal Affairs to indicate at this juncture that it is not the process that was in place is incredulous. Effectively, they have made a mockery of the process that protects the ratepayers of this province.”
Yeoman added that LSARA will seek support from Lac Ste. Anne County in their dispute of the petition verification and that the group still wants to see a provincial government inspection of the county.
“We still believe that inspection should happen. If we didn't believe that, we wouldn't continue all the work we've done,” Yeoman said.
-With files from Mamta Lulla
The Lac Ste. Anne Ratepayers Association (LSARA) presented to its members about the dispute during its annual general meeting on March 21.
The association argues that municipal affairs failed to follow its own procedural guidelines when it rejected the petition, originally submitted by members of LSARA in October 2015, before the association formed.
Leann Knysh, vice-president of the association, said both the municipal and provincial levels of government are failing the ratepayers of Lac Ste. Anne.
“We are just trying to ensure that we have a fair and equitable system where we have a council looking out for people of the county and we have a back up system with municipal government to help us if we find irregularities. We are being failed by both unfortunately,” Knysh said.
Alberta Municipal Affairs denied the petition, created out of concern for how the County was proceeding with its new administrative building, due to failing to meet the threshold for signatures. The petition required 2,052 signatures — 20 per cent of the county population — to pass and although the petition included 2,543 signatures, 558 signatures were excluded by municipal affairs for a variety of reasons. These included information incongruent with the county tax roll and missing witness affidavits.
After making several information requests, LSARA received Alberta Municipal Affairs procedural guidelines for petition verification. Using those guidelines as a basis, the LSARA executive said municipal affairs had failed to properly review their petition.
For example, one of the guidelines said that if there are any missing witness affidavits, the petition representatives should be contacted to obtain copies. But Chris Yeoman and Knysh, who both represented the petition, said this never happened.
However, Alberta Municipal Affairs has since said the procedure they had sent LSARA was not in place until May 2016, several months after they reviewed the petition.
“Our department has reviewed the work done in October and November 2015 to review the Lac Ste. Anne County petition, and we stand by the results. When a petition is received, Municipal Affairs takes such matters very seriously. We have taken steps to improve our verification process, but these procedures are not retroactive to petitions reviewed before May 2016,” said Tim Seefeldt, communications director for Alberta Municipal Affairs.
But Yeoman, who now serves as president of LSARA, said she is not satisfied with the response and remains sure of the association's argument.
“We formally requested the process and were provided what we reference in our meeting,” Yeoman said. “For Municipal Affairs to indicate at this juncture that it is not the process that was in place is incredulous. Effectively, they have made a mockery of the process that protects the ratepayers of this province.”
Yeoman added that LSARA will seek support from Lac Ste. Anne County in their dispute of the petition verification and that the group still wants to see a provincial government inspection of the county.
“We still believe that inspection should happen. If we didn't believe that, we wouldn't continue all the work we've done,” Yeoman said.
-With files from Mamta Lulla
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