Wheatland County Council in Brief Information from Wheatland County Council Regular Meeting – Wednesday, August 18, 2020

By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Financial update

Matthew Kurceba, manager of finance, provided a summary of the county’s unaudited financial statements, which are prepared by staff on a quarterly basis, as of June 30, 2020.

The county’s cash position was reported as lower than last year (about $52.2 million compared to $73.4 million in 2019). This was mainly due to the tax deadline being moved to the end of August, said Kurceba, which was done in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial challenges it presents to ratepayers. By June 30, 2019, the county had already received most of its tax revenue, he said.

Receivables are down. This was due to Wheatland Regional Corporation, which provides drinking water throughout the county and villages therein, repaying the county $1.07 million it borrowed for phase three of its Wheatland Regional Water Line project, Kurceba explained.

The county has less long-term debt than last year – total debt is about $3.9 million in 2020 compared to about $4.4 million at the same time in 2019.

The county has kept its purse strings tight. Total operating expenses are lower than last year by $4.3 million, which is due to the county taking measures to decrease expenditures during COVID-19, Kurceba explained. Capital spending is also down, at about 35 per cent below budget.

The county has also saved money through its completed projects: actual costs came in at 87 per cent of total budgets, meaning there were cumulative savings of 13 per cent.

Reserve established for Lakes of Muirfield

Council approved a policy to allow administration to create a reserve to set funds aside from the net proceeds from county-owned lot sales at the Lakes of Muirfield, of which it gained ownership in April. The reserve will ensure funds are available to manage assets there throughout its lifecycle (by paying for infrastructure, equipment and facility upgrades, and improvements), explained Tracy Budeau, general manager of corporate and financial services.

Vehicle inspections waived for Strathmore Handi-bus and Hussar Rural Fire Association

Council voted to write-off vehicle inspection invoices for the Strathmore Handi-bus (for $1,880) and the Hussar Rural Fire Association (for $470) for January to June 2020, as in-kind contributions. The inspection rates were $94 an hour, which is “extremely cheap,” said Deputy Reeve Scott Klassen. “These inspections are really at cost or below what anybody in the normal world would pay,” he said, indicating the actual cost of these vehicle inspections would be higher for the two organizations if performed at a commercial shop.

Support for Farmland Trust initiative

Council supported a resolution to provide support for the Alberta Farmland Trust, a land trust organization pursuing charity status advocating for the advancement of legal and financial approaches to protect, conserve and enhance agricultural lands in Alberta.

Conservation easements, which have been used successfully by lands trusts such as the Nature Conservancy of Canada for ecological conservation, incentivizes landowners for the establishment of permanent land title restrictions (e.g. prohibit conversion of native prairie, draining of wetlands, etc.). While the Alberta Land Stewardship Act opened the door for the use of conservation easements to protect the agricultural value of lands in 2009, they remain “economically unavailable,” according to the resolution. 

“This is a key piece of one of the principles that we struggle with – balancing landowner rights with agricultural preservation,” said Reeve Amber Link. “This is a good model that could balance those things.”

The resolution will be submitted by the county to the South Region Agricultural Service Board conference and the Central Rural Municipalities of Alberta – District 2 fall general meeting.

Land redesignation for aggregate pit approved

Council approved a bylaw to redesignate about 156 acres about one kilometre to the northeast of the Speargrass Golf Course community, from agricultural general district to natural resource extraction district. The redesignation was made for a proposed aggregate (mainly fine sand, reportedly) extraction operation by Lafarge Canada.

The planned haul route to the company’s Carseland pit will cross the intersections of Highway 24 and Highway 817 and Highway 817 and Township Road 221. Some nearby residents voiced concern about the potential traffic impacts of the project, through two emails sent during Lafarge’s community consultation process and via a single letter of opposition sent to the county. However, the 40 extra trucks that would enter and exit the site per day during its operation is expected to increase traffic level on Highway 24 by less than two per cent, explained Jeinnifer Weslowski, land manager with LaFarge Canada.

Only Division 4 Councillor Tom Ikert voted in opposition to the bylaw. Ikert said he was not opposed to the development itself, but rather the limited tax revenue the development is expected to bring to the county (through Wheatland’s Community Aggregate Payment levy), which is estimated at about $63,000 per year (depending on extraction levels), for a total of about $1.58 million over the pit’s 25-year lifespan, said Weslowski.

The company still requires a development permit from the county for the project. The proposed design and operating conditions (e.g. timing, mitigation measures, etc.) for the development will be further considered and could possibly be amended when the permit application later appears before council.