Concerns being raised around Westlock’s pending vote on Pride crosswalks, flags

In Westlock, Alberta — an hour north of Edmonton — the town will go to the polls in February to vote on whether or not to remove a rainbow cross-walk that was painted this past summer.

“I wonder if the same petition would have been signed if there were poppies for Remembrance Day painted on a crosswalk,” said Tyler Gandam, Mayor of Wetaskiwin and president of Alberta Municipalities.

The head of the group representing Alberta’s municipalities is concerned about a vote to remove a pride crosswalk and place restrictions on flags for the town of Westlock. 

READ MORE: Town north of Edmonton could ban Pride crosswalks, flags

Gandam explains how this got to a vote in the first place.

“I think Westlock is just 4,000 people — so they would have needed just over 400 signatures for that to be a legal petition in order for the council to take action on it. They passed the first reading on Monday night for the bylaw change, which is a legal requirement for council. It’s not like members of council or a member of council brought that forward,” explained Gandam.

Westlock’s acting mayor tells CityNews that, while petitions spring up from time to time, it is the town’s responsibility to verify the names and addresses. The interim mayor says she believes there’s a flaw in the system.

“The process of verification very simply is: ‘This a legitimate address in the community, and is the documentation in order.’ We have no way of calling that person up and saying ‘Hey, do you actually live here, are you a real person?’ So there has been some concern about how this process has been used,” explained Murtaza Jamaly.

The vote is also putting a drain on City resources.

“For our municipality, we don’t have a lot of extra dollars to spend on things like this. “

Westlock will vote on the rainbow crosswalk ban on Feb. 22.