Northern Alberta's Mackenzie County mulls changes to ward boundaries, council structure

A contentious proposal to change the size and number of wards in northern Alberta's huge Mackenzie County could lead to weaker representation for the people who live there, a councillor fears.

"It's creating division within our communities. It's creating division within cultural and ethnic groups. And we just want this over and done as soon as possible," Cameron Cardinal, one of 10 current county councillors, said in an interview.

Mackenzie County has a population of some 13,000 residents but bills itself the largest county in Canada. By geographic area, it's slightly bigger than New Brunswick.

The county includes the town of High Level and the hamlets of of Fort Vermilion, La Crete and Zama City.

Under a proposed redrawing of ward boundaries, three existing wards would disappear.

A report delivered to county council in July proposes to effectively eliminate Wards 8, 9 and 10, located north of the Peace River, and replace them with a single Ward 7.

Ward 7 currently encompasses Fort Vermilion, and is represented by Cardinal. If the new ward boundaries are implemented, all of a new Ward 7 would be located north of the Peace River, and Fort Vermilion will become a part of new Ward 6. 

"If you start removing councillors, people's voices will not be heard," Cardinal said.

Third-party review

In March of this year, the Alberta government commissioned a review of the county's council structure and ward boundaries, and the county's designation as a specialized municipality. The aim was to ensure county residents are adequately represented on the municipal council.

Usually, such reviews are initiated by municipalities themselves, but Mackenzie County asked the province to conduct it. 

"Mackenzie County has a long history of trying to figure out how best to manage their governance and ward distribution and those types of pieces, dating back to 1997 and even before that, largely because of the land mass," said Benjamin Proulx, director of municipal advisory services at Transitional Solutions Inc., the Edmonton-based consulting firm that conducted the review. 

The review recommended redrafting the ward boundaries and reducing the number of councillors to seven.

No decision has been taken on whether to accept the recommendations.

The deadline for the county to decide on how, and if, ward boundaries will be redrawn is Jan. 1, 2025, when nominations open up for the next municipal election, in October 2025.

Unequal population growth

The potential changes of ward boundaries are driven by shifts in the county's population, which increased by more than 12 per cent between 2017 and 2022. As of 2022, the county's total population was 13,204.

But the growth hasn't been uniform. The majority of it happened in more urban areas.

The hamlet of La Crete (Ward 3) grew significantly to a population of 3,856 in 2021. Another hamlet, Fort Vermilion, exhibited the largest growth rate – 17.8 per cent over five years. Between 2016 and 2021, Fort Vermilion's population grew from 639 to 753.

If the changes proposed in the report from Transitional Solutions were implemented before the next municipal election, five wards would be assigned to hamlets or hybrid wards, which would combine urban and rural areas.

The other two wards would encompass areas that are mostly rural. According to the report, 75 per cent of the county's population resides in the more urbanized Wards 1 through 5.

"We found that there was the need for a realignment of municipal electoral wards to better have a representation of appropriate size of population per ward," Proulx said. 

Hybrid wards would bridge the gap between urban and rural representation in a new council, he said.

Some of the current wards have low populations compared to others. For example, in 2018, Ward 10, located in the county's northwest, had 133 people. Anecdotal evidence suggests the ward's population has declined since then. The report estimates the ward's current population at between 40 and 60 people.

"That level of representation is no longer aligned with what we would consider good governance," Proulx said. 

No agreement on council

On July 17, during a council meeting, Cardinal voted in favour of a motion to keep Mackenzie County's governance structure, ward boundaries and specialized municipality status as they are. 

The motion, proposed by Coun. Lisa Wardley, who represents Ward 10, was defeated 6-4.

In a letter to Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver, which included the results of the vote, Reeve Josh Knelsen said Mackenzie County was looking forward to meeting with McIver to discuss the review. 

Cardinal believes removing any councillors "would drastically result in a lower level of governance." 

He said consensus on any of the options remains elusive. He believes representation by population alone is not the answer for the county.

"One councillor would represent half of the municipality as far as land mass goes, and that would be a huge imbalance of control," he said. 

"The remaining one ward would be Ward 7, which is north of the Peace River, all the way to the N.W.T. border and B.C. border." 

No final decision

McIver met with Mackenzie County council on Aug. 6 and told CBC he appreciated hearing input from the county on the issue.

"I am considering their feedback and I look forward to meeting them later this year to discuss this topic further," McIver said in a statement.

"At this time, no decisions have been made on any potential changes to the county's current governance structure." 

McIver said that while the government commissioned the report from Transitional Solutions, it doesn't constitute government policy.

He said those residents who want to contribute to the review process can still do so. 

"Alberta's government undertook a thorough engagement process as part of the governance review to ensure the voices of Mackenzie County council and staff were heard, and anyone who wants to provide feedback can contact Municipal Affairs directly to include in considerations," he said.