UPDATED: Petition seeks to dissolve municipality

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This article was published 19/05/2020 (2022 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A petition containing hundreds of signatures has been sent to the Municipal Board in an effort to dissolve the Municipality of Oakland-Wawanesa.

Dennis Rome, a former councillor in the municipality, said 624 people signed the petition that was delivered to the board on Friday — twice the number required by the Municipal Act, representing 60 per cent of the rural population.  

The numbers could have been much higher, but they had to stop when COVID-19 arrived on the scene in March, Rome said Saturday, adding petitions to the Municipal Board must be in paper form with original signatures and witnessed.

Much of the petition centres around tax fairness in the municipality, formed six years ago with the amalgamation of the Rural Municipality of Oakland and the Village of Wawanesa.

See ‘Head’ — Page A2

Rome said he and a group of others had many discussions with council regarding taxes and other issues with amalgamation.

“We found that we weren’t really making any headway in those discussions, and had discussions then further into the community,” he said.

“It was determined the only way to press forward with this was to use the provision of the Municipal Act to petition for dissolution.”

Rather than a harmonized tax system, which Rome says is weighed heavily against the municipality’s rural residents, he wants to go back to the way it was before amalgamation, with each municipality taking care of its own taxes.

Rome said just over 1,100 people live in the rural part of the municipality while only about 560 people live in the village.

“Even though we have two-thirds of the population (in the) rural, we seem to be very controlled by one-third of the population coming out of Wawanesa,” he said.

“Rural has been saddled, through the taxation process … with 86 per cent of the costs of running this municipality, and Wawanesa residents are down to paying 14 per cent of the costs of the municipality, which is not a fair position,” he said.

Rome said the group has been in contact with other amalgamated municipalities such as Boissevain-Morton that are in discussions with the provincial government on keeping differential taxation, “which allows for fairness of taxation.”

Oakland-Wawanesa Head of Council Dave Kreklewich said he has no problem with people distributing a petition, as long as it’s truthful.

That, he said, is the problem with this petition.

For one, he said, the petition quotes the village as paying $80,000 for garbage collection in 2014.

“Well, in 2014 under the financial audit, it shows the net cost of garbage for Wawanesa was $45,000. So, they’re not being truthful with it as far as the numbers go.”

He added, “It’s hard to say they’re completely wrong, but at the same time you have to know the whole story before you can really get into that discussion as to whether it’s fair or not.”

While it’s true 86 per cent of the assessed value of property is in the rural area and 14 per cent is in the village, “It’s just the values that they’re talking about,” Kreklewich said. “Distribution-wise, they’re basically paying the same basis as everybody else does, whether it be the village or the rural area.”

He noted that before amalgamation, the rural municipality didn’t have a fire service while the village did. The same went for recreational facilities.

Now, he said, “There’s some sharing, because of being used by people throughout the municipality.”

Kreklewich said he believes council is working as it should.

“We’re doing things the proper way, and there’s going to be those issues. They’re going to come up, and people can deal with them as they see fit.”

Decisions on council are made on a majority basis, he said, adding there are four councillors from the Oakland area, two from Wawanesa and himself as head of council.

“It’s being dealt with, you know, as council feels is fair and reasonable.”

Rome has had a fiery relationship with the amalgamated council.

He and fellow councillor Barry Fowell resigned in March 2019 after only five months in office — Rome for a second term and Fowell for a first.

Both cited frustrations and animosity between council members as factors in their resignations.

In 2015, two councillors put forward a motion to censure Rome, alleging his conduct had at times been “threatening and intimidating.” 

The motion was defeated, but a second resolution that forbade Rome from contacting employees of the municipality and using social media to discuss “municipal-related topics” was passed.

The resolution was spurred by Rome’s use of a local website to discuss municipal issues.

“From my perspective, I admit to being very outspoken,” Rome said. “Yes, I was outspoken on behalf of my rural constituents in that I felt that at every turn, our other folks on council — especially from the village of Wawanesa — were trying to silence me on important issues that represent taxation and so on out in the municipality.”

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