Town council has thrown its full support behind Mayor Ernie Isley, who strongly criticized the provincial government for its decision to leave the Town out of negotiations regarding the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (CLAWR) tax reassessment.
Councillors officially backed the mayor following Isley's comments last week about the CLAWR deal that will see the City of Cold Lake receive millions of dollars in revenue yearly, as early as 2012.
Councillors agreed with the comments Isley had made previously when he had claimed the CLAWR deal was made in large part based on what Isley considered incorrect information used by the province in making its final decision.
Minister of Finance Lloyd Snelgrove had claimed expansion on 4 Wing was impossible without strengthening the City of Cold Lake's infrastructure, which was, Isley said, a federal responsibility, not a provincial one. The base has its own sewer, water, and federal funding.
“The intention of this is so we're all singing the same song,” said Isley at the council meeting Monday.
Coun. Gene Sobolewski strongly agreed with the comments the mayor had made the week before, saying, “To put it politely, I think we've been sold out. It's a travesty.”
He added, “One of the issues that I've got is how do we get the message out without looking like the pouting twin here? About a month ago, we were told to play nice in the sandbox. There was no sandbox, there was a little dirt pile and somebody was slinging gravel.
“I don't mind so much that there was an agreement made, whatever transpired with the air weapons range happened, but it was based on false premises, that's the key. It's all false pretence, that's all it was. How can you make an actual decision based on false pretence?”
Coun. Jim Cheverie agreed.
“This is a $17 million sandbox that we're supposed to play in but we're not even invited to get in the sandbox.
“When the minister was here and MLA (Genia) Leskiw, both of them repeatedly spoke about fairness and asking us what we thought was fair — over and over again, they talked about what was fair and playing fair. I don't understand how they could ask us what was fair when they fully know what was fair. When you have new revenue coming into a region, it's distributed by capita. That's been fair for hundreds of years, so why would they continue to ask us what's fair when they know what's fair?”
Cheverie also reported at a meeting with representatives from other municipalities, there were a lot of questions about what was happening with the tax reassessment and how the deal had been made.
Town council decided to bring copies of the press release as well as documents Isley presented to Snelgrove the day the deal was signed to distribute to the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association meeting later in the week.
Those documents detailed what Isley claimed were false pretences about 4 Wing's infrastructure that were used while coming to the final decisions about the tax revenue from the CLAWR.
Isley presented the documents to Snelgrove last week, but it had no effect on his final decision.
