Court says White City’s appeal of boundary application decision can proceed

Saskatchewan’s highest court has decided White City can continue its bid to alter its boundaries.

In a media release Tuesday, the Town of White City announced the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal had granted the town leave to appeal the boundary alteration decision issued by the Saskatchewan Municipal Board’s Municipal Boundary Committee (MBC) in January.

During hearings held from Nov. 23-29 in Regina, White City and the Rural Municipality of Edenwold put forward arguments about the town’s proposal to expand its boundaries and amalgamate the town with other subdivisions in the RM. The MBC denied the town’s request.

On Feb. 9, White City announced it had filed an application for leave to appeal the committee’s decision — and that decision has been delivered.

“Our application for leave to appeal was based on a full review of the reasons provided by the MBC and on what we consider to be insufficient analysis and reasoning in support of the Committee’s conclusions,” White City Mayor Brian Fergusson said in Tuesday’s release.

“Ultimately, it is the town’s position that the MBC made several errors of law in reaching its decision, and therefore an appeal before the Court of Appeals was appropriate. We are pleased that the Court has provided leave to hear our appeal of the decision and look forward to the next steps in this process.”

According to the town’s release, the Court of Appeal’s decision to hear the appeal was based on four grounds:

• The committee erred by failing to provide adequate reasons;
• The committee erred by ignoring, failing to consider, or misapprehending relevant evidence;
• The committee erred by failing to apply the proper principles and legal test and by failing to consider the required factors from s. 18(4) of the MBA, under which a proposed annexation is to be evaluated and determined; and
• The committee erred by basing its decision on irrelevant or improper considerations.

The idea to amalgamate the town with other subdivisions in the RM of Edenwold was first proposed in 2018.

In 2019, the town filed an application with the Saskatchewan Municipal Board to incorporate White City, Emerald Park, Park Meadows Estates, Meadow Ridge Estates, Escott/Deneve, and Great Plains Industrial Park into one municipality.

In its release, White City said its application “sought to ensure that the town would have sufficient land to support a well-planned and managed community over the next 25 years” by incorporating undeveloped lands as well as the existing subdivisions.

The town said the appeal is expected to be heard this fall.