MD OF BIGHORN – A much-discussed boundary review for the MD of Bighorn will get a funding boost as the municipality looks to get a more accurate representation of where the population of the wards of the MD are trending,
Council approved $35,299 for the project, which will be conducted by ISL Engineering. The company completed boundary reviews for Rocky View County and Strathcona County.
“There is no right or wrong way to establish boundaries. It can be based on assessment, population, both of those things,” Reeve Lisa Rosvold said.
The original cost of the review was $29,899 but increased by $5,400 as council included population projections by Metro Economics.
The addition of Metro Economics will help ‘future-proof’ ward boundary recommendations through a realistic and defensible population projection.
“There is no right or wrong way to establish boundaries. It can be based on assessment, population, both of those things,” Rosvold said. “The addition of Metro Economics, it is more predicting a population 10 years from now based off our land use population documents.”
The ward boundary review was needed as the MD of Bighorn's population has risen by 20.7 per cent between 2016 and 2021. This requires a rebalance of the wards.
The boundary review could potentially adjust the wards to resolve inequalities in population demographics of the six sub-areas that include five hamlets and the rural balance of the MD.
“I think there would be a value to it,” said interim CAO Frank Besinger. “Not only would we have recommendations for how those wards should look, but we can also use that information as we go through the area structure plan process.”
Municipal administration indicated the extra money would come from reserves.
The review process was supposed to take place in 2022 but due to the change in CAO – after Rob Ellis and the MD of Bighorn parted ways – the first tender was dropped and a new one was issued.
Since the MD of Bighorn was created in 1988, there have been several changes to the MD through annexations, with the last major annexation occurring in 1993. While the municipal boundaries have changed for the MD, there have been no changes to the number of seats on council or the number of wards since 1989.
Requests for a boundary review have been coming most prominently from ward two, where Harvie Heights and Dead Man’s Flats are located. The two hamlets have been steadily growing, leading to some asking for more equality when it comes to municipal representation.
In the last federal census, the roughly 2,700 square kilometres of Bighorn grew from 1,324 to 1,598 residents.
Ward 1 encompasses Exshaw, Kananaskis and Seebe and has two councillors, while Ward 2 is Dead Man’s Flats, Lac Des Arcs and Harvie Heights and is represented by one councillor. Ward 3 is split in half on either side of the Trans-Canada Highway, with Ward 4 being the largest and Benchlands as the main population centre.
A final report will be prepared by ISL Engineering that outlining the methodology to be used in the review and recommendations for council to consider.
It is expected that the boundary review report will be presented in May of this year.
