As a provincial commission investigates making potential changes to Alberta's electoral ridings ahead of the next election because of an increasing population, a difference of opinion emerged between Sundre's mayor and Mountain View County's reeve.
Reeve Bruce Beattie recently told the Alberta electoral boundaries commission during a Jan. 25 hearing in Olds that adjusting the existing provincial boundaries to bring the entire county into one constituency would have several benefits.
"The county is divided into two distinct ridings and therefore two MLAs. The natural trading area is not represented," he said, adding the county's position is that a more workable boundary alignment would place Sundre within the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding.
"This would keep all areas of Mountain View County, including all towns, within one riding."
But Mayor Terry Leslie, supported fully by Sundre's council, presents a strong counter case by pointing out the issues faced by the municipalities don't necessarily align with one another. For example, wildfire as well as flood mitigation and emergency planning are concerns that affect communities that are situated along the Rockies' Eastern Slopes, the mayor said.
"We like the current electoral boundaries; we don't want to see them change."
Additionally, the mayor and his colleagues do not see having two MLAs to turn to as a disadvantage.
"Our council feels that we are better represented by two exceptional MLAs than by one."
In other words, if it's not broke, don't fix it.
But if there are any changes to be made, perhaps Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Jason Nixon has the right idea.
"I'm not going to tell anybody how to redraw it," he said about his riding's boundary when the MLA addressed the commission during a hearing held Feb. 1 in Olds.
However, he pointed out that the population density further west and north is far too sparse to justify making changes on land that is largely forest reserve. But going straight south, there are communities like Cremona and Water Valley along the Highway 22 corridor that share similar issues with other municipalities in the West Country such as Sundre and Rocky Mountain House, he said.
"One of the challenges Mountain View County has always had is the majority of the communities ó the larger urban areas ó are on that Highway 2 corridor. And then Sundre, where I'm from, we're very far away from that Highway 2 corridor."
That being said, lumping Sundre into the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding, which faces different kinds of issues than the West Country, does not necessarily sound like the most logical course of action.
Anybody who feels strongly one way or the other will still have a chance to offer some feedback before any final decision is made during a second set of public hearings lined up for the summer.
ó Simon Ducatel, editor
