It has been a dispute between two Saskatchewan communities for years, but after much debate, the rural municipality (RM) of Edenwold, Sask., has officially fended off an attempted annexation by White City.
White City is one of the fastest-growing communities in the province, and back in 2019, it began the process to expand its borders.
But it quickly become a point of controversy, as they wanted to annex over 4,000 acres of land owned by the RM of Edenwold.
However, on Thursday, a decision made by the Saskatchewan Municipal Board said the town of White City did not demonstrate a strong need for future residential growth and officially lost the case.
“When you are going after land that we have been developing for decades, that’s kind of where we put our foot down and said no, we have to fight this,” said Lee Chambers, communications for the RM of Edenwold.
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The Saskatchewan Municipal Board said White City already has an adequate supply of undeveloped residential land to last at least 10 to 12 years.
“White City claims they have no room and they are being encircled, but in fact there is plenty of room for White City to grow around the 400 acres they got in 2015,” Chambers said.
For White City Mayor Brian Fergusson, the decision was disappointing and surprising.
“We did an assessment of what we thought the potential outcomes were and frankly, this was not one of the ones that was on anybody’s radar,” Fergusson said.
He feels the growth of White City justifies the need for more land, and while he doesn’t know exactly when, he expects the town to be looking to expand its borders again in the coming years.
“What I can say with certainty is that we’re not going to wait until we get to year eight or 10 before we are back in front of the assembly once again for an application for an expansion of the boundaries of White City,” Fergusson said.
And while the two communities have continued to work together through the dispute and will continue to now, it is hard to instantly let go of a four-year engagement after the decision Thursday.
“What I’m concerned most for is those residents who really thought that this was going to give them better government, better representation,” Fergusson said when discussing the area and specifically Emerald Park.
“Obviously, that’s not an outcome in this situation.”
Now that the land dispute is over, both White City and the RM of Edenwold’s original development plans will continue as usual.
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