After what seemed like a never-ending process, Village of Clyde councillors have determined the village will remain an incorporated municipality.
It’s an outcome we can’t say we were surprised to see, and to be blunt, based on the information we’ve seen, it was hard to imagine any other decision.
Nearly three years of work from Municipal Affairs culminated in the Village of Clyde Viability Plan and Next Steps Report, the final document produced before council had to decide whether to remain, or recommend dissolution and head to a plebiscite.
Maybe our expectations were too high, but we anticipated that document would give some sort of tangible numbers, or a firm recommendation for not only Clyde council, but villagers.
It could have been simple and in plain language: Here’s an average property in Clyde and this is what is pays in taxes and the services it receives. Here’s a comparable property in Westlock County, the taxes it pays and the services it receives.
The report contained neither.
And without that crucial information there’s no way council could recommend dissolution and send residents to the polls to determine whether the municipality remained incorporated, or became a hamlet .
Would taxes go up or down?
Would services remain, or be reduced?
Nobody knows.
By all accounts it seems like a flawed process.
Municipal Affairs never compelled Westlock County to provide useful information and the county seemingly wasn’t prepared to go above and beyond what was asked of it.
And aside from an infrastructure audit and some vague recommendations from the province, nothing much has come from this three-year process.
So based on what we’ve seen, it only makes sense for Clyde to control its own fate and commit to some improvements, rather than join the county and just hope things would be better.
It’s still a long road ahead for the village, but now with their destiny set for the time being, the focus can shift to moving ahead as a municipality with help from Municipal Affairs.
