Wheatland County and the Town of Strathmore have been removed from the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board (CMRB) by Municipal Affairs minister Ric McIver.

McIver met with members of the CMRB yesterday, including Cochrane Mayor Jeff Genung, to discuss the draft of its growth plan that has yet to be adopted by the province, and to announce his decision to remove two municipalities he believed didn't fit into the picture.

“It is clear that the CMRB’s plans for growth in the region largely did not include Strathmore and Wheatland," states McIver in a written statement, "which is why we are streamlining the process by removing them from the board. Continuing without them just makes sense.”

As of Mar. 31, member municipalities will be Calgary, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, High River, Cochrane, Foothills County, and Rocky View County.

Mayor Jeff Genung said overall the meeting was positive. McIver indicated there will be a plan put in place, something some members were starting to question, that the government would continue to fund the CMRB and that all eight municipalities must be part of it.

"His endorsement of us working together as a region was positive," says Mayor Genung. "To be honest, removing Strathmore and Wheatland probably makes our board stronger because they didn't want to be in it from the beginning."

He says those municipalities aren't opposed to regional planning, but their capacities didn't allow them to participate at the same level.

McIver provided feedback on what changes he wanted to see in the growth plan, and the CMRB will have until Apr. 15 to respond.

Genung says it was basically a shift in the treatment of some areas within the rural municipalities, something that will be discussed by the board. 

"There wasn't a lot of dialogue. There was room for that, but really we were sitting with our jaws open, wondering what's next?"