FOR OR AGAINST / STOP OR GO

FOR OR AGAINST / STOP OR GO

Bernie Poulan, Mayor of Silver Sands, Judy Tracy, Mayor of Onoway, Larry Horncastle, Economic Development Coordinator, pervious Ross Haven CAO and now Ross Haven resident, and Wendy Wildman who represents 4 summer villages all spoke in favour of the Onoway Regional Medical Clinic/Municipal Controlled Corporation. (ORMC MCC).  Wendy Wildman also commented from a personal note that she is a taxpayer that has 2 children that use the clinic and pays taxes in the county.

THEY WERE THE ONLY ONES THAT SPOKE IN FAVOR! 

It is important to note that these individuals represent the municipalities already partnered to this corporation in the "New Corporation" format so of course they would be in favour. One of these individuals also stated they were INVITED to speak, which begs the question WHY?

Of course they are in favor if they are in fact a partner with Little or No Risk and Liability! Lac Ste. Anne County is taking it!

So who is Larry Horncastle?  He is the consultant who was paid to create this document!

On Our Way to Endless Opportunity An Economic Roadmap for the Onoway and Lac Ste. Anne Partnership Prepared by Keystone Strategies Inc. click here to view the report.  It can also be found on www.onoway.ca

The only reason LSAC would feel a need to create "MUNICIPAL CONTROLLED CORPORATIONS" for the ORMC or establish the Legacy Municipal Land Corporation (Legacy MLC) is so they have NO ACCOUNTABILITY to any one or any regulatory body. That would be their only benefit. No Responsibility and accountability nor transparency what so ever!

The following is a summary of the May 1, 2019 Public Hearing for the formation by bylaw of two Municipally Controlled Corporations ORMC MCC and Legacy MLC MCC

The Public Hearing was hosted during the regular council meeting in council chambers in the County of Lac Ste Anne county office. The CAO added to the agenda to item 10 a) is the petitions received from the ratepayers for bylaws 11-2019 and 12-2019.

It is important to note that approximately 75 residents were in attendance in the audience. Also important to note that no information was handed out nor displayed in any manner during the Public Hearing regarding either of these corporations.

Any letters sent to Council were received as information only and when asked if these letters would be read aloud, the Reeve indicated that they would not. We will publish two letters, each addressing the different formations of the two corporations from one resident who has extensive knowledge specifically on Alberta Health issues. We will also publish the letters LSARA has submitted.

Robert Osmond, the CFO, read out first a brief on the ORMC MCC. What is most interesting about this brief is that it was more an answer to some of the questions posed to administration and council earlier. More clarification was given as to why this corporation formation is important to them; added services, better access, allow families to grow healthy and strong. There was much talk about the inception of the ORMC Committee that was formed, that originally there were 15 municipalities that were involved in the “trial initiative” and that those that have removed themselves from the committee (9 municipalities) were not prepared to invest. County will control 82% of this corporation. The CFO said there was value in participation and the shareholders are expected to stay the same. He talked about revenues and the deficits that are expected for 2020 and 2021, but these will be funded by the Reserve Balance. (currently $85,000 in reserves and only $5,000 projected to be taken from here to cover the two year deficit). He stated that the first information that was put out to the ratepayers was February 13th after their council meeting and that this was mentioned in the minutes of that meeting. Since then, much info has been available through Websites and Facebook, as well as ads in the Lac Ste Anne Bulletin. (LSARA begs to differ: the only information published in the Lac Ste Anne Bulletin were the Public Hearings notices.) AHS offered to recruit another doctor but the Committee has asked that they delay that until they have more space. They have spent money already on things such as legal consultation but that it was included in the budget. He said the Market Impact Analysis was not completed as there are no competitors for this type of corporation.

Members of the public then spoke both for and against the ORMC MCC. Brad Javorsky and Dale Johnson spoke first and were not in favor of the council approving this endeavor until more information is obtained and more consultation is given. Brad was upset at the incidents at the landfill stations whereby direction was given by administration to send out the Peace Officers to stop the peaceful volunteers from asking the residents that attended to speak to their democratic rights. He cautioned that this is a move of a socialist government, not a democratic one. Dale was more to the point in saying first that perhaps the information that the CFO gave moments earlier should have been published for the public, that some of the budget analysis did not make sense and that proper financial statements were required by the MGA. It is not that he necessarily disagrees with the corporation but rather wants to understand what is going on. He spoke to the landlord of the current medical clinic and the landlord he stated that no one from council or administration had contacted him until 2 nights ago. The Reeve interjected here with a question to Dale asking if he knew that the one fellow is not the only partner in the company that owns the current leasehold. Dale was not sure about that but was not sure what the Reeve was asking, at which time the Reeve indicated that there had been discussions with the landlords partners. Dale again asked that the process be slowed down a bit to make a concerted effort to understand everything as it is very complex.

Bernie Poulan, Mayor of Silver Sands, Judy Tracy, Mayor of Onoway, Larry Horncastle, previous Economic Development Coordinator, pervious Ross Haven CAO and now Ross Haven resident, and Wendy Wildman who represents 4 summer villages all spoke in favour of the ORMC MCC. It is important to note that these individuals are represent the municipalities already partnered to this corporation in the new corporation format so of course they would be in favour. One of these individuals also stated they were INVITED to speak, which begs the question WHY? Of course they are in favor if they are in fact a partner.

Daryl Friesen, Tracy Ainsworth and Leann Knysh all spoke against the ORMC MCC. Daryl said he didn’t feel the municipal government should be running a corporation but rather stick to running the business of the county as they were hired or elected to do. Tracy said she is not sure why they find a need to form a corporation and asked who the directors are and if they get paid through the new corporation. Leann asked what has the current medical clinic brought to Onoway and the County in terms of economic growth, given that all the council and administration have indicated it is running in the black making it very successful but that the commercial vacancy rate is still very high in Onoway. Ms. Wildman indicated that this will bring employees and their families into the communities and allow them to purchase homes there. Leann pointed out this was the exact promise made by previous council and administration when they were going ahead with the administration building and there has yet been little to no growth in that immediate area as far as housing and commercial improvements. Leann also asked why the need to have a ORMC MCC if this is so very successful right now, and we know there is room for expansion in the current location, why spend ratepayers money on building a new building or creating a new corporation to run this? If it is successful why not keep it under the current committee format? Also begs the question of the perception of the medical building being a private medical facility given it is a for profit corporation that owns it.



The Legacy MLC Hearing proceeded after a short break. Again the (CFO) was asked to give a brief synopsis of why council feels they should establish a for profit land development corporation. He reiterated that this will be a company formed for land development where the private sector does not want to take on projects with little profit. He said developers are more interested in single family housing and luxury condo developments. The borrowing of 1 million will be at a rate of no more than 4.5% interest and that the loan will be at the same rate. It was a typo in the advertisements for the different interest rates and that was amended in the bylaw going forward for the second reading. The purpose of this MLC is to engage in development innovation strategies rather than concentrating on return on investment and that borrowing the money from the County is to build valuable community resources,. He said the only significant risk is only if the medical clinic shut down. No location has been determined to date and the building design has been delayed.

Brad Javorsky again got up to speak to the necessity of the corporation, pointing out that one of the reasons the County would want to form a company such as this is because they then would not have to worry about public input nor requirements by the MGA. We the ratepayers did not sign up for this nor was this brought up at the last election and perhaps this should have gone to a plebiscite vote. Basically, they could do want they want to do with no accountability. He also pointed out that in the MGA under the MCCR that the County has not complied with the requirements of the Alberta Municipal Affairs Legislation, Municipal Government Act (MGA) and the Alberta Municipal Affairs Regulation, Municipally Controlled Corporations Regulation (MCCR) (AR 112/2018). as they failed to provide a Market Impact Assessment, required to ensure the government corporation is not competing against the private sector. For this reason, he feels the bylaw to establish the Legacy MLC should be rescinded or shelved.   

Dale Johnson spoke again to this MLC corporation stating he thought it was redundant and just another layer. There should be other ways other than borrowing to promote economic development such as tax incentives. He stated to keep it ORMC only. He said there is no way the county can manage a corporation without spending more money. More clarification or information must be sent out to people before they go forward with plans of this magnitude.

Larry Horncastle spoke for this establishment of the MLC Corp and said he has many awards for his representation in economic development. He said he was involved in something similar in St. Albert where the city started developing land and then the private sector realized the value and started buying up all the land. He thought this might be the same scenario and for that reason he is in favor. It is important to note that Mr. Horncastle had been an EDC advisor previously for the County of Lac Ste Anne as well.

Leo Blais also spoke to the MLC establishment and said the county has been governed to run the county not run corporations. He said it is dangerous for the County run a business.

Anita Blais spoke next and said she has concerns about what other projects this corporation will take on and be able to do this with no input from the ratepayers. She said the County lacks the experience to go into land development and that they should not risk the credit and security of the County.

After everyone was done speaking, the Reeve thanked everyone for attending and being so well behaved. He said no decision would be made today as they would have to deal with the petition that was received from the ratepayers first. They were then taking a break and resuming their regular meeting afterwards.

It is noted that the petition was handed in at 4:20 pm on April 30th. We had more than sufficient signatures on the petition for bylaw 12-2019 and a few more on the petition for bylaw 11-2019. We required 10% of the Population (10,800) and we accomplished this in a very short amount of time with many challenges in that time such as Easter and the delegating of peace officers who were sent to stop us from reaching the ratepayers in a peaceful easy way. 

The petition is to be reviewed in total confidence by the CAO or the CAO delegate, if any, as per the MGA so we can imagine it may take him some time. Our hope is that council will listen to the people who signed (25% of the actual electors) and that they will indeed shelve this over complicated endeavor and continue to run the medical clinic in the same successful way it has been run in the past two years. We suspect they are so far into this that perhaps there is no turning back now but doing the right thing should always supersede pride.