With the Town of Chestermere recently approving a motion for the municipality to take on ‘city’ status, some may be wondering if Cochrane should do the same.
After all, Chestermere boasts a population of just under 16,000, less than Cochrane’s 21,000, and in Alberta, once a municipality reaches 10,000, it can apply for city status.
But does it really matter what Cochrane’s population is, and does becoming a city bring with it any benefits?
Chestermere became a city hoping to benefit in two ways: economic development and recognition.
“Chestermere has crossed the threshold you need to be successful and run a profitable business,” said Jean-Marc Lacasse, Chestermere’s enterprise facilitator, on the town’s website. “The city title lets investors know they will be successful too.”
Voting be become a city Sept. 29, Chestermere will get its official title Jan. 1, 2015. The municipality said its new ‘status’ would help attract more businesses and investors to the community, and that new developments are anticipated to begin in the next two years and will feature space for commercial and light industrial business.
Cochrane mayor Ivan Brooker said that the type of business Cochrane looks to bring into the community is somewhat different from what Chestermere is after.
Cochrane aims at enticing smaller businesses to town, and technology-driven companies, like 4iiii, and that heavy industrial companies would not be the right fit for Cochrane.
But what about increasing grant monies from the province?
Brooker said that at this time, becoming a city does nothing to improve a municipality’s potential to garner an increased number of grants from the province, as funding is based on population rather than status.
There is, however, in the future the possibility that this will change.
With the cities of Calgary and Edmonton continually growing and each facing their own unique needs, the idea of the province bestowing ‘charter city’ status upon each is not out of the question and is being discussed under the current review of the Municipal Government Act (MGA).
A charter city is one that runs under its own stand-alone legislation rather than following the province’s MGA, which is the primary statute for governing the affairs of each municipality. This does not mean the charter city is more important, per se, just that it makes its relationship with the province separate from the laws that govern other municipalities.
So, why would this matter to Cochrane?
If Calgary and Edmonton were to become charter cities, it could mean that municipalities would benefit if they had city status, but this notion remains speculative.
“It is too early to determine whether becoming a city means we could develop our own charter,” said Cochrane CAO Julian deCocq. “Certainly it would be something to consider if the province is prepared to expand the application of the charter process to all cities large and small, and if it provided a benefit.”
In agreement with Brooker, deCocq said current grant programs don’t seem to advantage a city over a town, but that if the charter process was available, he could see a benefit to Cochrane becoming a city.
CAO deCocq also agreed that Cochrane did not have to actively pursue the same type of business as Chestermere was after.
“Cochrane has a much better ratio of residential to non-residential,” said deCocq of the comparison to Chestermere, “and likely would not benefit in terms of an economic development strategy alone.”
Two of the primary reasons Brooker feels Cochrane should retain its current status was for financial benefits and to maintain the town’s perception as a ‘small town,’ a characteristic he believes many in the community are fond of.
The fact that if Cochrane were to become a city it would have to take over financial responsibility of the provincial highways that run threw its borders (Highway 1A and Highway 22) would be a cumbersome financial weight to bear.
The one benefit to doing so would be that the much-anticipated twinning of the two highways and where they intersect, would be in the hands of the town, and waiting for the province to make it a top priority would be over.
The cost to taxpayers, however, would be substantial, said Brooker.
The estimates that the cost of twinning Highway 1A and upgrading the intersection with Highway 22 would be in the tens of millions (around $30M for the intersection alone), and if Cochrane were a city, local taxpayers would have to foot that bill.
Bill Popplewell, president of the Cochrane and District Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber would soon be seeking input from local businesses on what each would like to see happen when it comes to infrastructure, primarily roads, in the future to improve business in town.
Brooker said he looked into whether the town had ever in its history discussed the idea of becoming a city, and that he was surprised to find that it had not.
Cochrane surpassed a population of 10,000 around the year 2000.
Brooker said with the way Cochrane has grown, its current size and list of needs, he feels many of the issues brought forward by the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) do not translate as well to the municipality as does topics discussed during the Mid-sized Cities Caucus.
The Mid-sized Cities Caucus invites mayors and CAOs from municipalities with populations between 15,000 and just below 100,000 to discus goals and challenges each face.
The AUMA represents the province’s 271 urban centres, including cities, towns, villages, summer villages and specialized municipalities, while there are 21 communities that are part of the Mid-sized Cities Caucus.
Whether Cochrane will eventually become a city is fairly clear – with an estimated growth of six per cent, it cannot cling to its ‘town’ status forever.
But at the present time, being a town seems to be the status of choice.
