Amalgamation off the table

Labrador City has backed away from amalgamation with the Town of Wabush.

Lab. City mayor Graham Letto and Wabush Mayor Jim Farrell had a conference call with Dianne Whalen, Minister of Municipal Affairs, July 22, and Labrador City decided to withdraw from the feasibility study on amalgamation after learning its request to defer the Sept. 29 municipal elections was denied.

"When the Town of Wabush came to us last fall and asked us to look at the possibility of amalgamation and to do a feasibility study, we said 'yes', we were prepared to do the study knowing full well at that time we didn't think we had enough time then to do that study and have a plebiscite done for the Sept. 29 election," he explained the reason for the deferral request. "Both councils agreed to ask the Minister (Dianne Whalen) who has the authority to under the Municipalities Act for a one-year extension. We were informed that the extension has been denied."

Mayors shocked

Both mayors admit they were shocked by the decision and they don't agree with the Minister's reason for refusing the communities.

"The only reason given to me by the Minister was they feel a year is not long enough to do what needs to be done (when it comes to amalgamation)," Letto said. "I totally disagree with that statement, but nevertheless that's the reason they gave us. The Minister made it quite clear her decision has been made. There will be no extension and an election will go ahead."

Farrell said he thinks Minister Whalen didn't grant the extension based on the commissioner's preliminary report and admitted he had some concerns after commissioner John Roil held the initial public consultations on amalgamation in June.

"We had a small turnout at each one and there were some serious questions asked at those meetings," he recalled. "I'm sure there were a lot more issues than he expected and there was a lot of work to be done."

Farrell wonders if the scope of the issues - recreation, taxation, grants with the mining companies - was part of the Minister's decision to refuse the deferral.

In a telephone interview with the Aurora last Thursday, Minister Whalen confirmed Farrell's suspicions.

Number of outstanding issues

"I only have fixed ability for one year under the legislation to defer an election," she explained. "There's a number of significant outstanding issues that need to be resolved and these include the taxation rate, the viability of the recreation centre in Wabush and varying levels of financial support from the mining companies for the towns and the negotiation of a revised fiscal framework for the new municipal identity, so with that the window of opportunity to resolve these issues within a one-year time frame is small and unrealistic at this point."

One year is enough, mayors say

The mayors maintain it could be done within the year timeframe, and Letto said he is blown away by the decision because there was no indication a deferral would be a problem when the mayors told the Minister they would be seeking an extension in the first meeting they had with the Department of Municipal Affairs in the fall.

"I have to disagree with the mayors and their opinion," Whalen stated. "I have to stay within the confines of the law and the legislation. I never gave them that impression (that a deferral would be forthcoming). What I did say was we had to do a preliminary consultations and I would determine after the preliminary consultations if we would indeed give them an extension."

Leaving it to the people

Letto pointed out the councils thought it was in the best interests of residents to put off the elections until the study was complete, so people could make an informed decision on whether they'd like to amalgamate before going to the polls.

He noted Lab. City and Wabush didn't want the elections to focus on amalgamation, so to be fair to residents, the larger municipality has decided to withdraw from the amalgamation process.

"We are no longer involved in the amalgamation feasibility study," he stated. "We entered into this in good faith. We agreed when we entered into this we would see the process through to completion."

Letto explained the town council is not willing to make a decision on amalgamation without the results of the feasibility study, and it will now be up to the next elected council to determine if it's worth looking at again.

Disappointed

Labrador City has informed the Minister and the Town of Wabush of its decision, and though the mayor said he's confident council made the right choice, he's disappointed it couldn't finish the process it started.

"We thought it was a useful process, but we knew full well there were significant challenges, and we also knew we were not prepared to do anything that was detrimental to the taxpayers of Labrador City," he said. "We know there's been significant opposition to amalgamation, but those feelings were based on what we know today. That's what the feasibility study was supposed to address."

Minister Whalen said Labrador City does have the right to back out of the amalgamation, but she added it's important to remember the communities went to government requesting the study.

Process can start again

She said Letto has asked government not to conduct any further amalgamation consults and she agreed it wouldn't, but if the next council wants to look at a feasibility study, the province can start the process again.

She didn't have the numbers on how much was spent on the study so far, but she said she doesn't consider it a waste of time or money.

Farrell thinks it's unfortunate the towns won't get the opportunity to finish the feasibility study and now that Labrador City has backed out of the process, Wabush has to regroup.

"I can't say what we're going to do because I haven't met with council yet," he explained. "I'm not going to comment on (Lab. City's) decision. They made their own decision, but I would have liked to see the process carry on - Graham (Letto) would have liked to see the process carry on - but we have to leave that decision to the next council. There's not a lot we can do. Lab. City is off the table."

Labrador City, he said, didn't give any reason to Wabush on why they weren't interested in pursuing amalgamation any further, but he thinks the larger community treated Wabush fairly.

If nothing else, the mayor explained, the exercise was a great opportunity to highlight the ongoing issues in Wabush.

"People know now what recreation costs us in Wabush and government knows it too," he pointed out. "Hopefully that will help us down the road. It has been a benefit to us in that regard."

Merge inevitable

Farrell said he believes the two communities will eventually merge into one even if the upcoming councils don't decide to pursue the study in their term, and he added there's nothing to lose by doing the assessment because residents get the final say.

Both mayors explained the communities are prepared for an election in September, and while Farrell said he will run for a position on the Wabush council - not as mayor - Letto isn't sure what the future holds. He said he thought he would be mayor for another year at least, and will now have to give serious consideration to whether he will try for the top job again.

The mayors expect to have a full slate of candidates for the Sept. 29 election and said the towns of Labrador City and Wabush will continue to work together in the best interests of Labrador West.

Minster derailed assessment

However, Letto said, he feels the Minister derailed what would have been a good assessment of the operations of the two towns, and he thinks the communities are in for interesting elections in September.

"The election on Sept. 29 will not be an election to elect councillors, it will be an election about amalgamation," he stated. "I think that's unfair to the people who are running, it's unfair to citizens, it's unfair to the process and it's the wrong reason to have an election."

Minister Whalen said elections are not about amalgamation - when councils are elected they set their own priorities on how to run their towns - and every candidate looks at what they want for their community when they run, but she has no control over what people will focus on to get elected. Her concern is people coming out and running for their town councils for the right reasons.

Wabush and Lab. City not close

Whalen stressed election deferrals aren't requested or granted very often and while two communities that are close to amalgamating do sometimes get an extension on municipal elections, Labrador City and Wabush aren't close.

"We just started the process," she stated. "When we look at the timeframes and the outstanding issues, I thought, 'no the timeframe is not there to get this done by September 2010.'"