County defers electoral boundaries bylaw discussion

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Wheatland County council will resume discussions regarding bylaw 2024-18, being the new electoral boundaries bylaw, at the next regular meeting of council. 

The bylaw which was originally scheduled to be discussed at the Sept. 3 meeting, was deferred due to questions arising from council regarding some of the language employed in the bylaw with respect to when it would come into effect once passed. 

Council indicated a degree of comfort in differing the bylaw, as it must be passed prior to a Dec. 31 deadline, which still allots council time to further review and discuss the document. 

Reeve Amber Link suggested introducing a motion to defer in order to give council and administration more time to ensure the language used within the bylaw is absolutely optimized. 

A public hearing had been held July 2, during that regular meeting of council regarding Bylaw 2024-18, and at that time received first reading from council with minor amendments having been requested by council to be implemented into the document prior to second reading. 

Minor amendments identified by county staff included an amendment to the boundary between Divisions 2 and 4 around Strathmore for improved continuity of the divisions, amending the description of Division 6 regarding the former railway right of way, and grammatical and formatting amendments throughout the document, including sentence structures, adding page numbers, and commas. 

Periodic review of the county’s electoral boundaries is conducted in order to ensure the population within each division is relatively similar.

As population changes are inconsistent throughout the county, electoral boundaries are adjusted as deemed necessary in order to maintain somewhat even distribution of residents between the divisions. 

County administration had initiated a review of the current electoral boundaries, beginning Feb. 13. During the March 28 Committee of the Whole meeting, administration had brought forward several potential electoral boundary maps to be reviewed by the committee. 

At the May 7 regular meeting of council, the electoral boundaries review terms of reference was accepted by council, which outlined a process for the electoral boundaries review, including public consultation, advertising, and implementation.

Public consultation is noted to be required in order to inform the public of the proposed electoral division boundaries and to facilitate understanding of the proposed bylaw. 

More information regarding the proposed bylaw, its amendments, and the electoral boundaries map is available via the Wheatland County public meeting agenda. 

Coun. Tom Ikert proposed the motion during the Sept. 3 regular meeting to defer discussion of the bylaw, which was passed unanimously by council.