EXCLUSIVE: Alberta village criticized for selling old school for Sikh 'cultural centre' without consulting residents

In reaction to the Western Standard article about a small village in Alberta having their school turned into a Sikh "cultural centre" residents are speaking up about their dissatisfaction with how the council went about selling the property. One resident, Sharon Morrison, has been living in the small, quiet village of Rockyford for eight years, and disclosed to the Western Standard that along with herself, many residents have not been impressed by the village's conduct.That's because the village did not consult with its residents at all in selling the publicly owned building.Morrison claims there was "no town meeting" to discuss the sale, nor the impacts on the community of introducing a number of new daytime residents to the village..WATCH: Mystery surrounds sale of former Alberta village school set to become Sikh 'cultural centre'."Many people, they're really upset that we didn't have an opportunity to speak to this," Morrison said.Morrison claimed she requested two separate meetings with the village council to discuss the issue — something required by village rules, if residents wish to give their opinions on village issues. On the Rockyford website, it states if villagers would like something added to the councillors' agenda, they must "contact the Village Office."Morrison claims she organized two separate meetings with the council, one on May 20, and one on June 10.."I let them [the village] know: 'you guys took advantage of your authority and position.'""Actually, it was the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) that gave the final okay for a cultural centre."She claimed to have told the CAO, Lori Miller, "'you overstepped, you didn't give the residents a chance to know anything about it initially, we did not have a town meeting.'""You didn't ask the people around the area if they would be impacted by traffic, by parking, by noise, by possibly the value of their properties going down — they didn't do anything," Morrison stated.."The CAO has the power to okay what she did — that office has the power to do that."Every municipal district in Alberta has a CAO, or someone of a similar title which is its administrative head, and according to the Alberta government, "Councillors work with the CAO to keep informed on what the municipality is doing and it will depend on the administration to provide information so they can make sound decisions.""There's many people in Rockyford that are really upset," Morrison stated."I've only been there eight years, but the people that have been there for decades and centuries, their families started RockyFord."."So there's a culture there that does not fit, and this is not about racism at all.""It is not about racism, although our mayor brought that up in our first meeting, which really wasn't appreciated."The Western Standard also talked to another local of Rockyford, Geoff La Prairie, who has been living in the village for 13 years."When it came to putting out offers on the school, which they did over the weekend with no notice to the community, other than a posting on Facebook," La Prairie said. ."I don't know who reads those things — nobody I know — and they didn't put a sign out front when they listed the school for sale, because they said the real estate agent couldn't find any signs, which is absurd."This is true — when the Western Standard went to scope out the old school in Rockyford back in May, there was no real estate sign that indicated the property had been sold despite Facebook posts advertising and announcing the sale. "There's no such thing as a real estate agent that doesn't drive around with three signs in their trunk; it's not heard of, and they said the school sold," La Prairie stated. "'We took the highest bid — we don't know anything about them,'" La Prairie says was the overall stance the village took on the issue. ."'We've never even met them, but we're sure they're great. We sold your school, and there's nothing you can do about it now, too late.'""People down here are very upset because it wasn't a building that was seized because of overdue property tax, or a sliver of property that the village owned that couldn't be developed and they decided to sell it."La Prairie adds at the two village council meetings Morrison requested, which he attended, all questions about the buyers were evaded."The village council refuse[d] to answer any questions.".On top of that La Prairie adds to a similar concerns to Sharon's, saying the village has done no sort of "safety study, and they've done no traffic study."La Prairie points to this being off because he claims when the village, "put a crosswalk in town for the kids to cross from the one side of town to the other, they had to do traffic studies and impact and all these kind of things — but with this, nothing was done."La Prairie says at the first meeting Morrison initiated, the village was "very combative" and it went on for over an hour."Village council meetings don't last an hour around here.".He claims to have seen the village being "combative" with Morrison. Instead of witnessing "a good person in the village coming up there and asking questions of her representatives, they got so combative with her.""They were so offended by her having the temerity to question their decisions, that if she hadn't kept her cool, I guarantee you they would have tried to kick her out."He attests to Morrison's conduct at the meeting as being of a "well put together nice lady, [who] owns her home, operates a business in Strathmore, never a problem to anybody, and just wanted to ask some questions.".La Prairie claims Rockyford mayor, Darcy Burke, professed he had "never even met" the people to whom he was selling the cultural centre."They're either lying about their motives or they completely abdicated their duty as, as people [en]trust[ed] [with] our village."He says many are not alright with the village's decision but "almost all of them are afraid of retaliation by the village councillors or by the people that have bought the school."When asked what he meant by retaliation, La Prairie explained the type of reputational damage many residents fear — being painted as prejudiced for questioning the introduction of the cultural centre into the community.."There is nothing that scares the good people more than being called a racist.""They would rather have anything else happen to them than be called a racist — they would rather their kids not be able to play out in the park."The old school had been sold back in 2024, but the buyer backed out of the deal — and a commercial realtor began selling it in January 2026.The school was originally listed for $125,000, and two offers were made at $135,000 and $156,000..Council decided on the offer of $31,000 above the asking price.The Western Standard also obtained the land title for the old school in hopes of getting the new owners names; unfortunately the title has yet to be updated with this information.Burke also explained to the Drumheller Mail the cost of maintaining the building was around $20,000 annually.There is a website that could indicate the cultural centre may become a Gurdwara, under the non-profit Gurudwara Guru Harkrishan Sahib Ji, with the same address as the old Rockyford school listed as its location.

EXCLUSIVE: Alberta village criticized for selling old school for Sikh 'cultural centre' without consulting residents

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