The study was ordered by Municipal Affairs after a petition was circulated in the community last year calling for a provincial inquiry into council’s conduct. The province determined the petition was legal and instead called for a dissolution study that caught many by surprise.
The petition was launched by a few people who had outstanding grievances with council. Nordahl says the province’s handling of the situation was heavy-handed and completely ineffective.
“It would be nice if Municipal Affairs took a stand after the same people call in time after time instead of letting it fester for years,” she said. “We didn’t even know the problem, we couldn’t get a copy of the petition ... Those grievances are still there and how do we find them and get them resolved now?”
Municipal Affairs representatives say the Minister was just following protocol for dealing with petitions, even though in Donalda’s case the petition was not seeking a dissolution study.
“Inquiries are relatively rare,” spokesman Jerry Ward said. “Usually they take the form of an inspection as opposed to inquiry.”
A provincial investigation was carried out in 2003 that showed no irregularities in how the village was run. After receiving the latest petition asking for an inquiry, the Minister determined the best course of action was to order a dissolution study for the community of 225 although the reasons for ordering the study have never been made clear. Ward says after a petition is verified as sufficient, the minister will determine how best to handle it.
“He is obligated to do something,” Ward said.
The minister determined a new investigation was not warranted and chose to pursue a dissolution study instead, Ward added. That angered a number of Donalda residents who turned up for an information session with provincial representatives March 23.
Some questioned the motives behind the study, while others asked if the minister had even looked at the village’s financial records and overall sustainability before ordering the dissolution process. Some wanted to know why he wasn’t there in person to answer the village’s concerns.
“Does the province save money by dissolving?” asked one resident during the meeting.
“Does the Minister even know what’s going on here?” asked another. “Does he know all the good things this community is doing?”
The crowd was assured by Municipal Affairs representatives that the minister is all-knowing, and has been keeping a sharp eye on the goings-on of the community. But that kind of nonsense was a hard sell. Nobody believed Hector Goudreau was a mystic oracle and that frustration spilled over to the Gadsby open house on March 31.
“Did he already make his decision?” asked a Gadsby resident, during the meeting of about 30 concerned Albertans gathered at the old Bank Building, prompting a few people to chuckle. “He’s the one deciding this and we have to live with it.”
Another resident asked if the comments collected from the public in a small white box for Goudreau would ever be available for the residents to view. The answer from provincial representatives was no.
“Why?” one man blurted out. The question seemed to hang heavy in the room above everybody’s head, swelling with importance. There was no response.
Gadsby residents voted 18-5 against dissolving their village last week. The difference between Gadsby’s dissolution issue and Donalda’s was that the petition from a few Gadsby residents actually asked for a dissolution study. But even Gadsby would fall under any recognized guidelines as a sustainable community and some residents were concerned the whole dissolution study was just a necessary step in a larger provincial plan to abolish small communities.
“This is really a smokescreen,” said resident Kerri Pothier during the information meeting. “It was already decided before they got this petition; that this was going to dissolve because our village is small and they want to dissolve the smaller villages in the province.”
Municipal Affairs denies any scheme to rid the province of smaller communities, but Donalda Mayor Terry Nordahl says the province should establish a set of criteria to measure the sustainability of communities before ordering tumultuous dissolution studies of healthy, vibrant villages.
“How do you determine who’s sustainable and who’s not without guidelines?” she said.
The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association agrees with Nordahl. President Darren Aldous says the province shouldn’t be ordering dissolution studies on a whim.
“If they call it, they need to have the proof, they need to have the backing,” he said.
“When the citizens [ask for dissolution], that’s up to the citizens. If they want it, they should get what they want ... But we were really taken aback when they pulled Donalda into this because when you look at [what makes a village sustainable], Donalda’s doing all of it. It’s a small community, but they’re growing and it’s vibrant.”
The AUMA has been working with various municipalities, municipal organizations and government to develop a municipal sustainability strategy that – among other things – would provide the necessary criteria for determining when and where a community would be served by dissolution. Some of those criteria involve sound municipal development plans, partnerships with surrounding communities, risk management and the ability to provide core services.
“We need to start nailing this down,” Aldous said. “[The strategy] is basically criteria that communities can use to measure themselves.”
It is hoped the strategy will be adopted by the government as a type of framework to better determine if dissolution is the best course of action in the future. As it stands, the province is obligated to respond to legal petitions (20 per cent of residents) in some form and if an investigation has already been completed, a dissolution study is the only remaining option. There is no limit to the number of dissolution studies called into a particular community and in some cases petitions have been started by disgruntled former employees or former councillors who failed to be returned to office.
“It’s pretty tough,” Aldous said. “It comes down to personal issues and personalities and when you’re in a community of [a couple] hundred, there’s always going to be differences of opinion.”
As Donalda and Gadsby and six other communities with dissolution studies pending are finding out.
It has been noted that the Minister of Municipal Affairs has never ruled against an overwhelming majority in dissolution plebiscites in the past. Ward says a decision by the minister could take up to two months. But the question that remains is how long until the next dissolution study is called?
Dissolution Study: The Story Continues
Residents in both Donalda and Gadsby voted overwhelmingly in favour of saving their communities from dissolution last week, but the whole issue has left many questioning the province’s motives behind ordering dissolution studies and whether or not their communities will actually be spared.
Although 85 Donalda residents voted against dissolution in a non-binding plebiscite last week compared to 29 in favour, the village will not learn of its future until Municipal Affairs Minister Hector Goudreau announces his final decision in a couple of months.
Donalda Mayor Terry Nordahl expressed delight in the outcome of the plebiscite, but says she is frustrated the province felt the need to order the dissolution study in the first place.
“I truly believe that most people here love the village,” she said. “They love it here because it is a good place to live. We work hard to keep it up and running and growing ... But there has to be simpler, less expensive and more effective ways of getting problems fixed than dissolution.”
Christopher Walsh
Journalist and author of the book Under the Electric Sky: the Legacy of the Bill Lynch Shows.
Website: undertheelectricsky.com