A county resident has started a petition aimed at stopping the County of Stettler from borrowing money to build a new shop facility on its new property.
Brad Mappin has drawn up a petition calling on council to kill the borrowing bylaw, a petition that's available for county residents to sign at Romar Power Sports, Bagshaw Electric, and a handful of other community businesses.
Mappin said a dedicated group of volunteers are also going door-to-door in the county with the petition.
Council voted on the first reading of the bylaw, which would allow the county to borrow roughly $7.65 million, at its meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 10.
The bylaw was contentious, with the vote splitting 4-3, with councillors Joe Gendre, Ernie Gendre and Dave Grover voting against, and councillors Greggory Jackson, Les Stulberg, James Nibourg and Reeve Wayne Nixon voting in favour.
The opposition to the bylaw at the council meeting was not necessarily related to the need to borrow money, but to the fact that the amount wasn't broken down entirely. The Gendre brothers were unified in saying they felt it would be irresponsible to borrow money until the exact amount necessary, and where each dollar was to be spent, was known.
Mappin, for his part, said he objected to the borrowing bylaw because of the state of the economy, citing job market and business instability as a reason why to hold off.
While he agreed that tender competition would be greater in the economic climate, and that interest rates on the loan would be lower, he also said the same sort of principle applied to buying a new vehicle, like one of the motorcycles sold by his business.
"But you don't see people buying motorcycles, do you?" he said.
While the old shop facility needs repairs and upgrades if it is going to remain in use, the cost of those repairs and upgrades are nothing in comparison to the costs estimated for the new county shop facility and administrative building, Mappin alleged, saying that the money would be better put to maintaining what exists than building new.
Mappin said he was hoping to get the 500-600 signatures, which is what he said he believed would be required to have the county act on the constituents' wishes.
Niki Thorsteinsson, director of communications with the county, said that while she and others at the county have not seen the petition, the county encourages its ratepayers to take a proactive interest in government.
"We support that a petition is a democratic process the electorate may pursue under the terms set out in the Municipal Government Act (MGA) if they are opposed to a decision their elected officials have made," she said in a written statement.
She noted that the role of staff is to carry out the wishes of council and in the event of a petition, the CAO's role is governed by the MGA.
"In the event the electorate is opposed to one of council's decisions, the electorate could file a petition with CAO Tim Fox. Our CAO would then follow the guidelines as determined in the MGA, Part 7, Public Participation," Thorsteinsson added.
The bylaw will return to council for a second, and possibly third reading at the next county meeting on Wednesday, March 9.