A coalition of several rural and indigenous communities in the area say the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) is earmarking a disproportionate amount of tax dollars on the urban centre of Fort McMurray and plans to call for major changes to how the region’s governing body is structured on Tuesday.
The alliance said it plans to bring up its concerns at Tuesday’s RMWB council meeting which is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
Ron Quintal, the group’s spokesperson, says the concerns have been longstanding and earlier this month, the coalition met with Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee to ask for the province to intervene.
According to Quintal, rural Wood Buffalo makes up for about a one third of the municipality’s population but contributes 95 per cent of the area’s tax revenues, in large part because of the industrial activities of oil and gas companies just outside Fort McMurray. However, Quintal says only 4.3 per cent of the RMWB’s 2016 operating budget will be spent on rural communities and just nine per cent of its capital budget (after deferrals).
“At the end of the day, the rural communities are impacted by oilsands development and if the oilsands development are what’s paying the taxes – the 95 per cent of the taxes to the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo – why shouldn’t the rural communities be able to prosper from that?” he said in an interview with Global News Monday evening.
Quintal alleges the RMWB has not lived up to its obligations as set out in a 1995 amalgamation agreement to provide “equal rural service delivery.” He says many communities continue to live without pipe sewer and water services, safe roads, public facilities and adequate emergency services such as police and fire.
“These are communities who still use outhouses in a lot of cases, they use trucked-in water…a lot of these communities are borderline third world when here, we live in the heart of the oilsands, which is fundamentally one of the richest municipalities in Canada, and you have these communities that have such disparity,” he said.
Quintal said his group specifically plans to bring up stalled plans for a multiplex in Conklin on Tuesday, an unrealized project he said is emblematic of the frustration rural and indigenous communities in the area are feeling.
“A perfect example is the Conklin Mutliplex, a facility that has actually been approved on three different occasions – put on the books (then) taken off the books only to have us argue it again. And then with the wildfire recovery, we feel that they took the opportunity that they could take it off the books – a facility that had begun construction – and then now sits idle half built.”
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“Tomorrow is basically our hope to be able to get the Conklin Multiplex back on track so they can finalize the construction of that facility,” he said. “We feel that there is a disparity between the urban community versus the rural community and we feel that rural projects are scrutinized to a much higher standard than urban projects.”
Quintal also says local First Nations groups have recently met with Larivee to express their concerns over Treaty rights and land being upheld in the area.
On Friday, the Alberta government issued a statement on the concerns brought up by the rural groups.
“The RMWB is governed by a locally-elected council to make decisions about services, infrastructure and other key local concerns on behalf of local residents and residents are encouraged to raise any concerns they have about municipal matters with their locally elected municipal council,” the statement said. “The minister will consider the request made by the coalition of rural RMWB residents but encourages the coalition members to engage in further discussions with the RMWB administration and council, to seek local solutions to their concerns.”
While Quintal says dissolving the 1995 amalgamation agreement is not something the group he speaks for is aiming to do, they are leaving all options on the table if major changes aren’t made.
“Splitting from Fort McMurray is not something we want to look at, I think it’s the last option as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “Alot of our communities are very dependent on Fort McMurray and Fort McMurray’s a beautiful city and it’s part of our home.”
Quintal said that “as a minimum,” his group is hoping to get more representation on council.
“We want to open up the amalgamation agreement so that we can all fully understand what was in there so that we can actually potentially look at re-negotiating and or restructuring how governance is done in this region.”
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The rural stakeholders represented in this appeal to the Minister include:
• Anzac Community Association
• Athabasca Tribal Council (Supporting the 5 First Nations)
• Chard Métis Society
• Conklin Métis Local 193
• Conklin Community Association
• Conklin Resource Development Advisory Committee
• McMurray Métis
• Fort McKay Métis
• Fort Chipewyan Métis
• Willow Lake Métis Local 780
• Wood Buffalo Metis Council
Quintal said the coalition includes all rural and indigenous communities in Wood Buffalo except for Fort Fitzgerald, whom he said is also welcome to join.
In addition to being the coalition’s spokesperson, Quintal is also president of the Fort McKay Metis Community Association.
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo continues to recover from the wildfires in May that scorched thousands of buildings and forced about 80,000 people to leave the area as a state of emergency was declared.
-With files from Sarah Kraus, Global News.
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