It was a major bombshell that Mayor Ian Hamilton dropped on unsuspecting attendees of the annual Chamber of Commerce State of the City/State of the Town Address in Battleford Wednesday.
In closing comments, Hamilton raised a hot-button issue that has been brought up before at previous state of the city/town events – amalgamation.
“I’d like to acknowledge an indisputable fact – the state of the Town is significantly impacted and influenced by the state of the City, and vice-versa to some extent.
“I am often asked why are we not one community? And I do often wonder what might be, or what could be,” said Hamilton.
The North Battleford mayor noted such a community would be 20,000 residents and would be the fifth largest city in Saskatchewan.
“Would prospective business interests view us more favourably as one city of 20,000, and the hub of a functional economic area representing over 95,000?
“Together, are we more than just the sum of our two parts?”
Hamilton suggested answers needed to be sought on what the benefits and costs would be.
“Do the potential costs outweigh the benefits of a favourable economic environment? Would the financial benefits overcome the sense of loss of autonomy? I think we need to stop wondering and research the answers. We need actual information to assess the cost-benefit analysis of any proposal in considering partnerships, co-operation, collaboration or perhaps amalgamation of our communities.
“And we need to co-operate, and we need to share information in order to have all that’s needed to evaluate the options. This is the challenge I leave you to consider as residents and business owners in our community.”
In speaking to reporters afterwards Mayor Derek Mahon of Battleford indicated there was very little enthusiasm for amalgamation with his own council.
“Existing council is not in favour of that whatsoever,” said Mahon.
Still, he acknowledged it could turn into an election issue for the fall’s municipal vote in Battleford and North Battleford.
Mahon said he would “actually be interested in candidates that came forward in the town of Battleford to push amalgamation as their campaign status – I’d be really interested to see how well they would do in an election.”
Mahon did acknowledge the whole issue was one faced by other municipalities around the world – pointing to the various communities in the metro Edmonton, metro Vancouver and metro Phoenix areas as similar examples.
“Why is there Phoenix, why is there Glendale, why is there Mesa?” Mahon noted. “So it’s a question that’s out there.”
In the end, Mahon maintained his belief the appetite for amalgamation was simply not there among Battleford residents.
“What I’ve heard over my 16 years here is there’s not a lot of interest from the town of Battleford, so I’ll leave it at that for now and (it’ll) be interesting to see as it moves forward,” he said.
