Last week's article, Councillors opt to defer final budget until spring, was interesting for a few reasons. First, it seems the budget was deferred because of administration's concerns that the process lacked strategic planning and guidance from council. The second is that council may need to raise taxes in an environment where they are still receiving substantial oil and gas revenues.Rewind a few years Ö remember Netook Crossing was created through an extensive strategic planning process involving citizens and municipal neighbours. Don't buy into the argument being put forward by some that we speculated on the land and should accept whatever comes our way. That is simply not true. The county, for strategic reasons, created Netook: to preserve farmland, to offset inevitable tax losses and to create an opportunity for a new and sustainable future.We trusted council to follow through with its commitments and obligations clearly established through an Area Structure Plan put in place after extensive public engagement and support. Accordingly, we, in good faith, have invested millions in MVC, only to hear one councillor say, ìIt might not be a bad thing if the developers go bankrupt.îThis council is showing a lack of strategic planning in its budget process as well as its Municipal Development Plan (MDP) review. Their stated goal is to preserve farmland yet many of their proposed changes work in the opposite direction. Council has opened up significant portions of the county for potential multi-lot country-residential development, created larger potential economic development zones, increased residential parcel sizes and decreased densities. Taken as whole, this approach shows little innovation and does very little to support the goal of protecting agricultural land and the rural lifestyle. In fact, one could argue that the proposed MDP would appear contrary to the provincial Land Use Framework strategic direction of ìless is moreî and a requirement for efficient development. We need to question whether council has thought through a number of unintended consequences that will flow from proposed changes to the MDP.We also believe that in the absence of a long-term strategic plan, that fundamental changes to the MDP affecting the fiscal sustainability of the county are premature. The current budget deliberations are a pointed example of the need to first develop a long-term strategic plan and then utilize this approach to inform processes such as the MDP review and budgetary process. Simply put, council has the cart before the horse.From a budgetary perspective, council should strategically ask: What is the opportunity cost to the county if Netook doesn't go ahead? Indeed previous MVC strategic plans identified Netook Crossing as an opportunity to create business and tax assessments to offset the eventual loss of revenue resulting from the decline in oil and gas. Council is already having a difficult time holding the line on tax increases and maintaining services in an environment where oil and gas revenues remain high. This question will in part be answered through the Netook Fiscal Impact Analysis we are currently conducting to provide strategic information to support council decision making.Critical decisions about our future are being made. Time must be taken to make strategically correct decisions. To review the substantial list of questions we have about the MDP visit www.netookfuture.ca.Herb Styles and Terry JohnstonNetook Developers and MVC taxpayers
