White City turns to province in efforts to merge with Emerald Park

White City council is now going to the province in hopes of merging with Emerald Park and surrounding areas.

For the past seven months, the town has been trying to convince the RM of Edenwold to combine communities.

With a lack of support from the RM, which has been against the idea since day one, White City is proceeding with an application to the Saskatchewan Municipal Board (SMB).

“Our proposal would unify the urban community of White City and Emerald Park and give us the capacity and opportunity to provide the urban infrastructure and services residents expect in a community of our size,” White City Coun. Hal Zorn said.

1:47 White City moves forward with annexation proposal

“Our residents and our friends and neighbours in Emerald Park and the White City area support becoming one community because we can achieve so much more.”

Right now, White City is mainly made up of residential, while Emerald Park is full of operating businesses.

“The fact is our town is surrounded by development in the RM. Co-operation and voluntary mediation have not worked. We need to move forward,” Zorn said.

The RM, meanwhile, responded with a statement. It reads “the RM believes that we can and should continue to work towards a resolution that benefits both communities.” It goes on to say “the RM believes there are options and alternatives to annexation. In fact, the RM is in the process of seeking provincial support to explore some of these options for inter municipal cooperation and capacity building.”

The town indicated their application will be sent to the province sometime in the next few weeks.