Westlock County council will vote Nov. 13 on whether to hold a second plebiscite regarding the municipality’s participation in the operations of the Tawatinaw Valley Ski Hill.
Coun. Dennis Primeau provided a notice of motion to his colleagues around table at council’s Oct. 9 meeting.
The motion’s intention is “to have Westlock County engage the public in a second plebiscite regarding the Tawatinaw Valley Ski Hill. This would be to confirm the support or lack of support for the ski hill and as a council we must abide by the will of the people.”
In the initial October 2017 plebiscite, 1,028 residents voted ‘yes’ (53.4 per cent of the 1,894 ballots cast) to sell the facility.
Two interested parties toured the facility to express their interest in taking over operations in May, but the county voted unanimously to shutter it in July. After several meetings between Friends of Tawatinaw and council and a groundswell of public support, council reversed its decision and voted to enter into a three-year operating agreement with the group.
Details on the operating agreement have not yet been made public, but the county has committed to provide $200,000 annually for operating costs along with $50,000 yearly for capital costs.
That $50,000 will also have to be matched by FTWG through fundraising efforts, but as a volunteer organization the group will also be eligible for numerous grants that were not available to the county.
The hope is costs will be addressed as much as possible through fundraising, grants and sponsorship dollars.
Usually after a notice of motion is introduced, the motion is voted on at the next meeting, but this vote will likely be voted on at the Nov. 13 meeting instead, said Primeau after the meeting.
“That notice will be fulfilled after we get a legal opinion,” he said.
Primeau is taking issue with the process more than anything.
“They actually did everything — the presentation and the vote went through in that one meeting,” said Primeau referring to the Aug. 14 council meeting where the Friends of Tawatinaw Working Group presented to council and council voted to reverse its previous decision to close the ski hill on the same day.
“To me that is terribly wrong. It indicates ill will and ill intent on behalf of the movers. They’re trying to shove it through before anybody knows what has happened.
“There has been no time given to sober second thought, there has been the barring of public input. There’s a lot of things that were wrong there.”
Primeau has been a proponent of abiding by the results of the plebiscite since before the last municipal election when the vote on the ski hill was held. He said he’s only hearing anger and disappointment from residents that council reversed its decision to abide by the plebiscite.
“Most people are telling me that I’m doing the right thing, I voted the right way and I’m telling people what I’m going to do,” he said.
“I’m not against the ski hill, I just want to follow what the people said. This is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing and I’m saying the other guys are trying to come in under the table and push stuff through that they know full well there’s a huge amount of the population that doesn’t want to go there.”
