County makes headway with CGM concerns

Sharon McLeay
Times Contributor

 

Wheatland County is making headway in the fight to support rural concerns in the Calgary Growth Management (CGM) board proceedings.
According to Alan Parkin, Wheatland County CAO, the County is making some progress in reducing some of the area covered under the CGM board. He said he will further the cause when he meets with Municipal Affairs staff at the Association of Alberta Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC) meeting.
“We strongly want to have more than one elected official at the [CGM] meetings,” he noted. “If it is restricted to only one [representative], then we believe that everyone should be restricted to one and not do what Calgary did and send three representatives to the meeting. I believe that is fair and correct. If everyone is going to be treated equally, then treat everyone equally.”
Parkin said county staff were attending weekly meetings of the CGM and putting in a lot of time and money to present concerns. Although no staff increases for Wheatland County are anticipated at this time, he mentioned that other counties have asked for more staff, to meet the obligations of attending meetings in the future.
“The Edmonton Regional Growth board had about 45 meetings last year, and in the first year or two we expect that to be similar here,” he noted.
At the end of March or beginning of April, the proposed draft regulation will be presented to representatives of council. After that, a two-month public consultation process will begin.
Parkin said the CGM board has protected the minutes of the meetings, stating they are private and protected from public view; but Parkin said he feels they should be more transparent and available to the public.
Town of Strathmore and the City of Chestermere have sent a letter of support for Wheatland County concerns to the Minister of Municipal Affairs.

 

A need for speed
In the digital world, information delivery and reception speed is as crucial as a car’s ability to accelerate.
Over the years, Wheatland County councillors have received many comments from residents and business owners that rural Internet service needs improvement. One of the current providers in the rural area is CCI Wireless.
“Over the past seven years, CCI Wireless has deployed an advanced Alberta-owned, rural high-speed Internet network across the province of Alberta,” stated Wheatland County Reeve Glenn Koester. “The CCI Wireless network connects many of our residents and businesses to the Internet, and Wheatland County supports their efforts to increase bandwidth in our under-served area.”
CCI Wireless, in turn, has asked Wheatland County to lend written endorsement in their application for a federal grant request.
“We have only received a request from CCI Wireless so far, to apply for the rural Internet upgrade through the federal program that was announced,” said Wheatland CAO Alan Parkin. “They have not applied as yet, but they will apply. There is an advantage to the residents in the Gleichen area. [CCI Wireless] will upgrade the service if they get the grant. If they don’t get the grant, they may not upgrade service.”

 

Carbon credits
Innovative thinking is set to net a local leaseholder some additional pocket change, in a sale to recapture carbon credits.
Wheatland County currently owns a quarter section of which 40 acres is used for sand resources. It leases the remaining acres on the quarter to a local farmer. The leaseholder wants to sell carbon-offset credits from his no-till crop technique on the land he farms to an aggregator who, in turn, sells them to industries in need of carbon credits.
In 2016, Lorraine Lynch, a spokesperson for Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, listed carbon prices at $15 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent, with offset credit value to farmers at 54 to 80 cents per acre, in the brown and dark brown soil zones, and $1 to $1.60 per acre in the black and gray soil zones.
The 40-acre sand pit is recently exhausted, and when the property is reclaimed, the lease will be reviewed by the county.

 

Wheatland tax assessments
General tax assessments for 2016 came in at $4,146,408,650, which is down from 2015.
“A piece of good news, if you take this as good news, the drop in our assessments base was only a drop of about $122 million, not $192 million,” said Brian Henderson, Wheatland County’s general manager of corporate and financial services.
The assessment is used for the 2017 taxation season.
Residential property numbers increased, but farmland, machinery and equipment, and non-residential land decreased in 2016. There were an additional 1,227 market value-added sites, under oilfield properties, that will generate an approximate increase of $50 million in assessments under industrial properties; however, it is expected some of those assessments will be appealed and reviewed.
On April 4, county financials and audited statements will be presented in council.
Several grants are being pursued, which include MSI grants, federal gas tax, transportation, STEP, Canada Summer job grant, and two Fortis Alberta grants. There was $32,788 solar grant monies received for the administration building solar installation.

 

Senior’s facility and village centre planned for Muirfield
A public hearing for a Muirfield senior’s facility and village centre led to approval by Wheatland County council, prior to discussions on Muirfield’s discretionary control revisions.
The property was previously defined for commercial or community development; however, some confusion was in place, as specific use was not specifically defined in the current discretionary control guidelines.
Wheatland County staff noted that architectural control guidelines were not in place, so staff worked with the owner to develop guidelines for the properties. No specific site plan is available at this time.
There has been interest from the business community in the proposed village centre at Muirfield. The applicant said that specific plans come forward at the development stage. There are some water and bathroom services currently existing at the proposed village centre site that may be adequate for uses such as a convenience store or other business opportunity. There are also wastewater cistern holding tanks on the site.
Wheatland County council granted approval for second, third and final reading of the bylaw.
Council followed the approval with discussions on the undeveloped properties in cell seven and eight of the current discretionary plan. Old issues in the area are a priority to fix, so council stated that no new development approval could occur in certain designated cells, to ensure further construction cannot take place before wastewater treatment solutions are in place.
The new approval and changes will be brought forward to the next Wheatland County Committee of the Whole meeting.

 

Gopher control
Richardson’s ground squirrels (gophers) are waking up, and the 2017 Wheatland County rates for two per cent liquid strychnine are $252 a case, or $10.50 per bottle.
Sales are made to farmers through Wheatland County’s ag services department, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 12 noon, starting March 16 and running to June 22.
There is a limit of three cases per person. Sales of strychnine fall under the Alberta Pests Act with the goal to prevent the establishment and spread of declared pests, and assist with nuisance pests.

 

Environment plan accepted
An environmental plan started in 2016 appeared before Wheatland County council for approval on March 14.
The plan has three key components: structure covering strategic direction, planning timelines, administration responsibilities and organization; an action plan based on a three-year template with quarterly reporting program; and, reporting of recent Wheatland County environment successes.
“Building on the successes of previous environmental projects and programming, the environmental plan will allow Wheatland County to streamline the environmental projects, and improve and showcase the environmental leadership of the municipality,” said Alyssa Cumberland, Wheatland County environment coordinator.

 

Carseland fire hall
Agrium recently donated $25,000 towards the new Carseland fire hall.
“We are probably within about $50,000 of putting the shovel in the hole down there. It is going real well,” said Wheatland County Coun. Don Vander Velde.