The City of Fort Saskatchewan is the third municipality in less than a month to decide to withdraw from Edmonton Global, a foreign investment agency funded by municipalities through the Edmonton region.
Fort Saskatchewan city council voted unanimously to withdraw from Edmonton Global yesterday following an in-camera discussion. Sturgeon County council made the same decision on Tuesday as well.
Fort Saskatchewan Coun. Birgit Blizzard, the only member of council to speak to the motion to withdraw from the agency, limited her comments to “we feel this is a good way to go.”
Strathcona County council voted in late November to leave the agency, and the county's council passed a corresponding motion to use reserve funds to cover their annual contributions to Edmonton Global for the next two years because despite voting to leave, Edmonton Global's policies dictate that a municipality must provide two years notice before actually withdrawing from the organization.
Fort Saskatchewan and Sturgeon County did not pass a similar motion, meaning that each municipality's annual contribution to Edmonton Global will still be drawn from property taxes.
On Wednesday Edmonton Global released a statement saying the organization understands the decisions made by each of the council's “were not taken lightly.”
“Ideally, funding for Edmonton Global is seen as an investment in the economic well-being of the entire Edmonton Metropolitan Region rather than a cost line item,” the statement reads. “Investing in attracting investment is a way to grow and diversify our local economy and increase the corporate tax base that municipalities can draw from, thereby increasing their revenues.”
In an interview last week, prior to Sturgeon County and Fort Saskatchewan's withdrawal votes, Mayor Cathy Heron said she was worried that Strathcona County's vote would cause a ripple effect, but she feels as though regional economic development is something the Edmonton area needs.
“We still have our individual economic development departments, but Malcolm Bruce (the CEO of Edmonton Global) and his staff have done a very good job of propelling the region onto different international and national stages,” Heron told the Gazette.
“It might be a wake-up call for them to get back to some of their grassroots, get back to the sectors that they originally decided would be perfect for economic development in the region... more than just hydrogen and the airport.”
