-BY JENNIFER ARGUE, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
May 31st, 2022
The RM received written submissions from residents for and against, and several residents spoke against the annexation in person. The administration also read lengthy written submissions that were strongly opposed. LMT contacted the RM for the number of submissions for and against annexation. The RM continues to refuse to respond to any of our questions.
Many of the submissions asked questions, complaining that information regarding the process was unavailable and frustrated that questions continued to go unanswered.
After public submissions, Reeve Schmidt said, “In this matter, the RM is neutral. We are not for or against.” He explained that a policy begins when an organized hamlet starts the process of altering the boundary. He said it was a common occurrence and the RM had three similar ongoing processes. LMT has reached out to the RM to clarify this statement. Because they refuse to respond, we have no way of verifying what the Reeve said.
“People think that we’ve made a decision, and that’s not true. We’ve never even talked about in Council whether we think it’s a good deal or a bad deal.” Division 1 Councilor Whitrow said it was put to the public to answer questions and make submissions. He said he went door to door talking to Heritage residents on the weekend.
Sorenson Beach annexation of Heritage Valley - Public Hearing - May 31 2022
Councilor Dixon is the Chair of the Hamlet committee and he responded to a list of 21 questions. When asked if the RM would be responding to questions over email, he said they wouldn’t be and that questions were only being answered at the meeting.
Dixon said the RM does not have the final say as it goes to the government afterwards. It should be noted that in addition to these roles, Dixon is also the President of the lobbying group Provincial Association of Resort Communities of Saskatchewan (PARCS).
Responding to questions on the outcome of the Sorenson vote, Councilor Dixon said the RM didn’t have the information and that organized hamlet meetings are not open to the public, only to ratepayers, and people can only attend through invitation. (This statement is contrary to the Guide to Organized Hamlets, which states, “O.H. Board meetings should be open meetings that anyone may attend.”) Councilor Howard Arndt visibly shook his head, disagreeing with what Dixon was saying.
Dixon said he didn’t see any negatives with Heritage Valley joining Sorensons and that the benefit would be that they would have some say in how the new entity was run.
The audio recording of the meeting and the RM’s responses to the questions can be found on the RMs website.
A resident asked if the RM would be asking for a service agreement for the access road entering Heritage Valley. Councilor Whitrow said that the RM currently does not require service agreements from organized Hamlets and doesn’t have a plan to do so.
One person who spoke claimed that Heritage Valley residents who use the boat launch at Sorenson’s Beach are being harassed when they use it. He said people were concerned they would have to agree with annexation to preserve their access to the boat launch.
The Reeve confirmed that the boat launch is available to the public because it is on private land, and they don’t have to join Sorenson to keep using it. The RM said that the organized hamlet had paid for the boat launch out of its reserve account.
Council will discuss the annexation at the June 21st meeting of the council.
Note: These reports are abridged for content
