By Nigel Maxwell

Candle Lake residents demand referendum

Sep 18, 2014 | 7:28 AM

Four petitions circulating around the Resort Village of Candle Lake are causing quite a stir.

The petitions are in response to three development proposals before the resort village council. The proposals include plans for two marinas and an RV park.

Council has made it clear that they will not even look at the proposals any further until a capacity study is first completed by an independent consultant.

A group of residents is not satisfied with that and is arguing a referendum should be held on whether any development should go forward.

Ernie Meili, who has lived at Candle Lake for the better part of 40 years, is a member of the petitioning group.

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“We're not anti-development, we're just anti-conversion of re-zoning green spaces for development. There is no urgency for it. It doesn't benefit the community at present and it certainly won't benefit our future generation,” said Meili.

Meili who is very concerned about the loss of green space, said there is a great disconnect between what the residents want and what council is doing. The group has so far collected more than 2,000 signatures.

“We're getting nobody saying they didn't agree with the four petitions. The only people that didn't sign them, and it's understandable, are the people concerned about having their business affected,” said Meili.

The village council has so far rejected the request for a referendum saying zoning decisions are a council matter.

Joan Corneil, the development officer for the village, said on Tuesday that there are no provisions for these petitions in the municipalities act, and that council must simply abide by what they are allowed to do. 

“Yeah, council has a job to do, but we think this decision is so important and will impact the lake to such a great extent that the people who elected you should decide this,” said Ron Cherkewich, another resident in favour of a referendum.

Cherkewich said he feels council is being led astray by Corneil's advice and through his own legal research feels the council has every right to grant a referendum on the issue.

“In the Municipalities Act that we have today there are only three areas you cannot use petitions, and it's very specific where you can't use petitions. The four petitions we have now, have nothing to do with those,” said Cherkwich.

Cherkewich added council must respect the petitions.

“There are 671 people signing one petition, over 2,300 signatures all together. The mayor got 540 votes in the last election,” said Cherkewich. “The same people that elected the mayor and council, signed those petitions. Where is the sense in what they are doing?”

Mayor John Quinn said council is taking this issue very seriously and said it will deal with the petition as soon as the capacity study is done. He added that council has to make a decision and it will do so when it has information from all sides.

When asked directly about the petition, Quinn said he has talked to people in the village who knew nothing about it.

Corneil said she expected the study to be complete by early October. Council will review it and then a public meeting would take place.

Quinn reiterated that there may be some belief that council is ignoring the residents and has already made up its mind. He said that’s not true at all. He reassured residents that council will do its due diligence.

nmaxwell@panow.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell