'A dangerous precedent': White City annexation decision sets stage for future developments

The Saskatchewan Municipal Board (SMB) dismissed White City’s application to annex 4,000 acres of land including all of Emerald Park on Thursday.

It’s a legal dispute that lasted more than four years.

White City Mayor Brian Fergusson said the dismissal of the municipal boundary alteration was not only disappointing but concerning.

“This sets a dangerous precedent, I think from this point forward every urban municipality in the province has to be concerned about the developments that will encroach on their boundaries,” Fergusson said.

According to Fergusson, Emerald Park’s growth will rapidly increase by 85 per cent over the next 10 years, surrounding the boundaries of White City, limiting its growth.

“That is very dangerous, as far as we know in Saskatchewan there are no other communities facing anything close to that level of encroachment,” Fergusson said.

Other communities in Saskatchewan facing similar problems include Nipawin and Tisdale.

Municipalities strongly consider amenities when planning to create a sustainable community.

With the RM of Edenwold and White City intertwined it creates duplicate services that are utilized by both communities, which is a problem according to Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) CEO Jean-Marc Nadeau.

“When you're having fire halls and public services so close together, then you duplicate and you're drawing from the same amount of population,” Nadeau said. “So that becomes a problem.”

• Download the CTV News app to get local alerts sent to your device

The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) said rural municipalities and RMs need to sit down and work together in order to provide services for their residents.

“I think the more we can do that, the more our province can move ahead,” explained Ray Orb, president of SARM. “They are really part of the economic engines that drive this province.”

Mitchell Huber is the Reeve of the RM of Edenwold and said the RM is glad the legal dispute is over.

“We are glad that the cloud is away from our hands and we look forward to a bright future and further development of Emerald Park and the surrounding areas,” Huber said.

White City officials say they will let the raw emotion settle before making any more decisions.

The municipality has 30 days to appeal the decision by SMB and has to wait one year before submitting another municipal boundary alteration application.