The town has brought in some help in an attempt to squeeze some money out of the provincial government, but a Wildrose MLA is questioning the motives behind the move.
The Town of Okotoks has hired Navigator Ltd, a national consulting firm that has been known to have a close relationship with the PCs, and Premier Jim Prentice in particular, to help lobby for funding for the water pipeline.
“Navigator has been involved in lobbying the government for many years and there has been ties to the federal government where this premier has served before and there's been ties to him as well in other matters,” said Linvingstone-Macleod MLA Pat Stier. “So, it seems a little bit odd to me that a local municipality, who desperately needs this pipeline, has to resort to hiring a lobbyist who happens to be an acquaintance of the premier's to get this done.”
Stier said he’s pointing his finger at the provincial government for making the process so difficult that municipalities feel they need to hire “friends of the premier” in order to receive the funding they need.
“We know the town needs that and I’m certainly not against the town doing what they can to try to get this going… but it seems unfair that they have to resort to that type of avenue to get something done,” Stier said.
The Alberta Lobbyist Registry shows that the contact began at the beginning of March, and is being paid for with MSI funds that come from the province.
“Why is (provincial) government money being paid to Navigator to lobby this same government for more money?” Stier asked during a recent question period in the legislature, to which Municipal Affairs Minister Dianna McQueen said municipalities are free to spend their MSI dollars with “without strings attached” to do what they feel is best for their community.
Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson said council was presented with the option of hiring a “consultant” to help them with pipeline funding, and voted unanimously to hire Navigator.
“I wouldn’t have said that we hired a lobbyist, I would have said that we hired a consultant as we do with many various pieces of infrastructure in town. When we're building a bridge, we hire engineering consultants,” he said. “The biggest advantage is getting advice from someone who deals with government… advice on who to contact, on various pieces to the puzzle that we were having some problems with, so it's advice on further moving our pipeline project along.”
As for the accusation that the town specifically hired Navigator because of its ties to the government, Robertson admitted that an open tender was not held, but said they decided to hire the consultant they felt could best get the job done.
“I don’t know if it’s connections to the PCs or just who we thought would be able to help us get the water pipeline,” he said. “First and foremost we need a water pipeline, we need funding for a water pipeline. We have water for another 2,000 people but development will stop if we don’t have everything in place.”
The town will continue to lobby the Province for water pipeline funding and is also now working with the Federal government to find new funding solutions.
