Okotokians may not be enthralled with yet another delay by council on making a decision on the population cap, but it was the prudent move.
On Monday night town councillors voted 4-3 to postpone the decision on a proposal to annex land for future growth until Sept 24. Initially, council was supposed to make a decision on the proposal at its meeting on June 25.
Essentially, this is a decision on whether or not Okotoks will maintain its population cap — a significant decision as the cap has defined this community over the past decade.
Council has put off a decision on this issue several times over the past three years and on the surface this looks like yet another stall tactic.
This is a council looking more and more like it is unable to make difficult choices without relying on its on-line surveys. However, the timing of June 25 made this decision impractical.
Okotoks has hosted two meetings on growth this month and another focused on input from business owners is scheduled for June 5. The Town will also hold a household survey starting this month. Council will receive the results of the consultation process and survey questions on June 22 — just three days before it was expected to make a decision at its June 25 meeting.
It simply did not leave councillors enough time to make an informed decision especially with the amount of information they would be expected to review.
In addition, summer is not the ideal time to make a decision of this magnitude as many residents are more focused on escaping to the lake than growth at home. Therefore, making a decision on the annexation proposal at its Sept. 24 meeting makes sense.
However, there can be no further delays.
The previous council did not make a clear decision, this council is showing it is also reluctant to make the tough choices. At this rate it could push a decision on Okotoks’ population cap onto the next councillors as its predecessors did before.
The final draft of Calgary Metropolitan Plan is expected to be complete by the end of June and the MD of Foothills may pull out of the Intermunicipal Development Plan, in part due to its frustration with Okotoks’ indecision. No one is waiting for the Town.
Most importantly, Okotokians want to know what their future holds — will we embrace growth or hold true to our population cap.
Council needs to make a decision on this sooner not later.
