WESTLOCK – Town of Westlock administration rejected a last-minute petition to stop the painting of the community’s first Pride crosswalk June 27, saying that there was “far less signatures than had been portrayed there would be” and “significantly less” than an online one in favour, along with the fact councillors had dealt with the issue twice and that the Municipal Government Act (MGA) doesn’t contemplate petitions for things like the painting of a crosswalk.
CAO Simone Wiley confirmed that they received a petition from community organizer/activist and DJ Benita Pedersen in advance of the June 26 town council meeting that demanded council not allow the painting of the crosswalk across 106th Street. Wiley said after they examined the document, which contained only 136 signatures, then compared it to the online pro-crosswalk petition on change.org started by graduating R.F. Staples School student Shaylin Lussier, who’s also a member of the school’s gay-straight alliance (GSA), the Thunder Alliance, that has garnered 698 names that “administratively, we chose to not even bring it forward to council.”
The Thunder Alliance received approval from town councillors back in May to paint the crosswalk, which runs between the town office and Westlock Legion Hall, while at their regular meeting June 12, councillors reaffirmed their support following presentations from both sides and the crosswalk was painted last Tuesday.
“The delegations had happened, council made their decision and then reaffirmed their decision and when the person dropping it off says, ‘People don’t want this’ and then the petition ‘for’ it has three times the number of signatures, it’s a clear case of a vocal few who are not in favour,” said Wiley. “And I think it’s worth noting that both the ‘for’ and ‘against’ petitions are not exclusive (signed by) to the Town of Westlock residents.”
Wiley also made it clear that petition wasn’t valid under the MGA for a host of reasons and that “council had no obligation to do anything with it.” A Municipal Affairs document from 2016 on petitions explains that Section 232(1) of the MGA states that electors may petition council for a new bylaw or to amend or repeal an existing bylaw or resolution on any matter within the jurisdiction of the council under the MGA or any other enactment, subject to some limitations. Councils may also be petitioned to hold a public meeting (s. 229), for a public vote on an advertised bylaw or resolution (s. 231), or for local improvements (s. 393).
Beyond, for a standard petition to be valid, at least 10 per cent of population of the municipality needs to sign it, while for others the bar is set at 30 per cent — the town currently has a population of 4,802.
“The MGA does not contemplate this type of a petition that would force council to do anything about the decision that they made. They’re elected to make decisions and they made one. There were some residents who were unhappy with that decision and wanted to be heard and they were heard,” said Wiley. “And just because council didn’t agree with them doesn’t mean the democratic process wasn’t followed correctly.”
Pedersen was contacted by Westlock News June 29 asking for comment but did not reply.
