Good follow up for my previous post:
At the council meeting of last week the Mayor spoke about this very issue and
the process that the Municipality would have to go through to achieve the goal
of getting it’s hands on the MD of Ranchlands very lucrative Linear Tax base.
Two ways it can be achieved either by Amalgamation or
Annexation, the first is more of a co-operative approach where the Crowsnest
Pass requests Ranchlands to share its wealth with us and we state all the good
reasons why they should do that and all the benefits we could provide for them.
The Mayor stated that process has been gone through already and just as they
did with previous councils they respectfully declined the offer.
So that leaves Annexation a process where one
municipality takes another over or portion of. Much more of a confrontational
and timely process, by the Mayor’s own admission at minimum a eighteen month
process. That’s not to say that it can’t happen but the argument usually put
forth by Municipalities to grab part of their neighbours is that they have gone
through tremendous growth and need the land.
8 comments:
Let's hope that the MD of Ranchlands continues to politely decline the offer. This is nothing more that a money grab by this council to fund their 21st Century nonsense. Why should a successful community be forced to share with one that is devoid of fiscal responsibility? Take care.
In the society we live in today we are all told by the banks, accountants, governments, that we must live within our means. Why is government exempt of that logic.
Most people do not know that our province spends more per capita $11700 per year, than any other province. Next door we have Saskatchewan that is also very dependent on Natural Resources for its tax base but only spends $10500 per capita. If Alberta did he same we would have a surplus of $3.6 Billion this year. There was an excellent write up about this in the Calgary Sun this weekend.
Instead of constantly looking for ways to maximize revenues governments at all levels need to minimize costs.
Al
The md of Ranchlands is not going to let there land be annexed without one hell of a fight.I do not see why we do not go after the md of Pincher while we are at it.Those mines across the border are not that far away, may as well go after them also.
What a waste of time and money.
Dean
Here is some information that I think would be of interest to you and your readers. The following report was commissioned for the Town of Okotoks in April of this year.
It appears to me that the basis for annexation usually revolves around substantial growth of communities.
http://www.okotoks.ca/data/1/rec_docs/2284_Annexation_Information.pdf
Blair
Your mayor is like a good fisherman he throws the bait in the water and waits for the guppies to bite.
We all know what usually happens to the fish.
Anon:2:56 - too early to tell whether he is a fish or a fisherman.
Is Bruce talking about annexing Ranchlands all the way to Chain Lakes, or just a piece of it where the lucrative "linear property" is located?
Here is a map (1.5Mb PDF) from
http://www.mdranchland.ca/
Good idea there Bruce. Forget about the new firetruck. We need to buy a tank to push through your new policy!
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