2009 Capital Region Board
Published September 18, 2009
The Capital Region Board, after a long and tedious gestation, is now a reality. Anyone who has followed my commentary over the past couple of years knows that I have not been a cheerleader for the CRB or the Radke Report that preceded it. But, that was then and this is now. One can only sulk for so long before getting on with life. The Province has decided, as is their right, and the CRB is here to stay. To their credit, the twenty-five regional municipalities have for the most part taken a cooperative, pragmatic approach to the situation, working together in a spirit of mutual self-interest. The complexities of introducing another level of government into an existing system in a very short time demanded nothing less.
It was fortunate that the two largest and most influential municipalities: the City of Edmonton and Strathcona County quickly decided to work together rather than permitting degeneration of the discussion into a pointless and ultimately destructive feud. Both Mayor Mandel of Edmonton and Strathcona's Mayor Olesen are enthusiastic supporters of their respective municipalities, yet these two strong-willed folks together with their teams were able to bury the hatchet and provide consensual leadership when it was badly needed by the region. It is too bad that differing opinions are often sensationalised by the media, while fruitful backroom negotiations are rarely considered newsworthy, which is why few people know what has been going on over the past many months as the CRB takes shape.
We still have a long way to go; the biggest single piece of the puzzle, Land Use requires ratification by the Province, which at the current rate of progress will not come before the New Year. It appears our Municipal Development Plan will be supported more or less in its current form by the CRB. That is the good news. The not-so-good news for those seeking development guidance is that a complex process may have added years to the planning horizon.
The CRB requires significant County personnel and financial resources as we always knew that it would. Provincial setup funding will end soon leaving the municipalities with full financial responsibility for the new CRB bureaucracy. There are now four elected officials directly involved with CRB (including myself) along with many full and part-time administration staff. There will be a financial impact and therefore tax impact on the municipality.
Would we have been better off had the Province not imposed the CRB on the region? Probably, yet that question is no longer on the table. It's time to move on.
Alan Dunn
Councillor Ward 6
780-464-8206
dunn@strathcona.ab.ca.
Last updated: Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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