Two weeks ago MD of Bonnyville council voted 4-3 in favour of a contentious discount land sale. Council voted — incorrectly in the eyes of many MD voters — to offer to sell 2.5 acres of reserve land in an industrial park west of Cold Lake to the Islamic Society of Cold Lake.
The approved asking price was set at $10,000 — roughly 10 per cent of the property's assessed value in 2010 (the land will be carved out of a five-acre municipal reserve parcel assessed at $200,000).
Howls of protest to the deal came at the meeting from councillors Barry Kalinski and David Fox, who were joined in their opposition by a quieter Andy Wakaruk.
Proponents of the sale, including Reeve Ed Rondeau and Coun. Don Sinclair, used the argument the society is simply another community group, and that the MD works with community groups all the time, and that those groups sometimes benefit from MD land decisions.
There's some validity to those arguments, though the discount land offer also leaves the MD open to a potential flood of requests for cheap land. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on one's perspective. If you're a group that needs land and that benefits society, the opportunity to scoop land at low cost could truly benefit the MD and the region. The issue remains open for debate.
What's abundantly clear is the fractured-looking council would have benefited immensely before making its decision if it had received advice beforehand from its ratepayers and from its administration. Any change it makes to its position now will be viewed as reactionary — mostly because it will be.
Here's what should have happened.
Rondeau, as both the big-picture reeve and one of two council members who have been around the council chamber for more than three years, should have floated the issue out for discussion a few council meetings back. It's not a new issue. Council has heard in the past the society was looking for land. Coverage of the issue may have followed in at least some of the region's media outlets, generating some resident feedback.
Council should have formally asked administration for a report on the matter — one that would have included a little research on past discount land sales by the MD to both secular and religious community groups, and perhaps a look at what is done with such requests in other municipalities. That report wouldn't necessarily have needed a recommendation for council, but it would clearly have laid out the public policy implications of selling land at 10 per cent of its assessed value to a religious organization.
That report could have then been circulated to council members and also been made available to the public (quite cheaply on the MD's website) prior to decision day. Council members would have shown up for the debate with a much clearer understanding of the views of their citizens and the implications of their decision.
That would be a lot better that looking reactionary and generally not interested in public consultation before a key decision is made.
One of the guiding principles for MD council members, as laid out on the MD website, reads: “We believe there should be openness in decision making.” The decision made June 9 was made in the open, but it would have been a better decision — for both the community and the politicians — if the public had been consulted before council set a precedent with major implications.
