Lloydminster is reconsidering a joint growth study with the County of Vermilion River that could see the city moving its boundaries into the county.
In 2015, both municipalities started negotiations on growing Lloydminster’s land needs, which eventually fell apart in 2017. Now the discussion is back on the table with both municipalities having had the opportunity to come up with a strategy to move forward. City Councillor Jonathan Torresan says with a new council and new relationships being built the city can finish the growth study.
“Getting to a point where we can have an uncontested annexation and getting to the point where we can develop a new inter-municipal development plan, which would show were the future boundaries of the city are in 30 or 40 years.”
Both cities have agreed that they have common interests and goals, including how to create economic opportunities on both sides. Torresan says the city was finding it difficult to communicate with Vermilion and now they are both in a place where an open dialogue can happen.
“I believe that we can have honest discussions with them in which we are representing our city’s interest and they’re representing their interests. We can talk about the issues and the challenges where we may have competing interests and try and work out some level of agreement.”
A motion to continue the study will be brought forward at Monday’s council meeting.