In a 3-2 vote, Crossfield town councillors decided to withdraw from the Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP), Dec. 6.
Councillors James Ginter and Jason Harvey voted to stay in the Partnership, while Mayor Nathan Anderson, Deputy Mayor Jo Tennant and Councillor Garry Richardson voted to withdraw.
The CRP, incorporated in 2004, is a coalition of now 14 communities that recognize and address regional needs such as transportation and growth management.
“After more than a year of serious consideration as to the merits and drawbacks of the CRP, the Town council of Crossfield has decided to withdraw from the CRP table,” said Anderson in an email. “I fully agree with regional cooperation, but cannot support the idea of regional governance, nor regional legislation. In my opinion, the CRP is on a slippery slope towards a regional governance model.”
Anderson said he sees the value of working with other municipalities on projects or communication, but involving 14 other unaffected communities isn’t necessary.
“I have met a lot of great leaders from great communities at the CRP table. However, there are other ways to interact with our municipal counterparts. I feel that as a community we have an opportunity to show first hand what it means to trim back costs by limiting the engagement of our government,” said Anderson.
CRP Chair and Cochrane Mayor Truper McBride said he isn’t worried about Crossfield’s decision.
“I think the benefits to being in the partnership speak for themselves,” said McBride. “I can’t say I am overly concerned with Crossfield leaving. They are one of the smallest communities in the Partnership, and they are on the fringe of the Partnership. When we run growth projections, Crossfield just isn’t seeing the growth the rest of us are.”
McBride said as a member municipality, Crossfield would have a potential solution for any future sewer issues.
“Calgary has invested quite a bit of money over the past decade, they have the capacity to move sewage from Crossfield to Calgary,” said McBride. “At the same time, if they are able to come up with their own solution that works for them, that’s great. If they want to take advantage of anything Calgary has to offer, membership in the partnership is a requirement.”
McBride commented on Anderson’s concern about the CRP becoming a fourth layer of government.
“If there is that fear out there, then identify it for me,” said McBride. “I do no know how the CRP could tell Crossfield or any other municipality to do anything. If there is that fear, then I have to have that substantiated.”
Anderson said forcing a municipality to be a member of the CRP to be able to partner on projects with other municipalities is what makes it a level of government.
“Since those whom are tied into Calgary infrastructure are subservient to the CRP, I would definitely define that as a layer of governance,” said Anderson.
“I’m not sure how you could call it anything else. I would rather not prostitute out our autonomy in exchange for veiled security.”
Harvey, who voted against the motion, said the town could benefit from being a member of the Partnership because of the potential to attract business and data sharing. He added he isn’t concerned about water and sewage issues in Crossfield as the Town has been addressing them in recent months.
“I think the CRP has benefits to us as a small town, we can benefit from being a part of the larger region,” said Harvey.
“On the water side, we have already sunk a bunch of resources into that infrastructure. On the sewage side, it’s something that has been on the radar for a long time. Even if we were still in the CRP, it would be very expensive.”
