MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – After recently approving a new intermunicipal collaboration framework agreement with Clearwater County, Mountain View County council has approved several other similar agreements with other neighbouring municipalities.
The moves came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting with all councillors in attendance.
Mandated by the provincial Municipal Government Act, the agreements are designed to “provide for the integrated and strategic planning, delivery and funding of intermunicipal services, steward scarce resources efficiently in providing local service, and ensure municipalities contribute funding to services that benefit residents.”
The new agreements are with the Village of Cremona, Red Deer County and Rocky View County.
Mountain View County is required to have the framework agreements in place with all neighbouring rural municipalities.
All of the new agreements outline steps to be taken regarding future projects and agreements.
The Red Deer County agreement states, “In the event that either municipality initiates the development of a new project and/or service that may require a new cost-sharing agreement, the initiating municipality’s chief administrative officer will notify the other municipality’s chief administration officer in writing.”
The agreement outlines criteria to be used when assessing the desirability of funding of new projects, including the following:
• Relationships of the proposed capital project to statutory plans, or any other regional long-term planning document prepared by the municipality.
• The level of community support.
• The nature of the project.
• The demonstrated effort by volunteers to raise funds and obtain grants, if applicable.
• The projected operating costs for new capital projects.
• Municipal debt level.
• Projected utilization by residents of both municipalities.
“Once either municipality has received written notice of a new project, an intermunicipal cooperation committee (ICC) meeting must be held within 30 days of the date the written notice was received, unless both chief administrative officers agree otherwise,” the Red Deer-MVC agreement states.
“Both municipalities recognize that the decision to participate in or not participate in a project ultimately lies with the respective municipal councils, who in turn must rely on support of their electorate to support the project and any borrowing that could be required.”
The Clearwater and Cremona agreements contain similar provisions.
All three agreements also include dispute resolution provisions, including the following:
“In the event that one of the parties believes there is a dispute under this framework and wishes to engage in dispute resolution, the party must give written notice to the other party of the matter of the dispute. The ICC will meet and attempt to resolve any disputes that may arise under this framework.
“In the event the ICC is unable to resolve a dispute, the ICC will appoint a mediator to attempt to resolve the dispute by mediation. The party initiating the dispute shall provide the mediator with an outline of the dispute and any agreed statement of facts along with any records, documents of information that the mediator reasonably requests.”
Unless the parties agree otherwise, the cost of the mediator must be shared equally between the parties.
During the Feb. 13 council meeting, councillors directed administration to notify the Minister of Municipal Affairs that the agreements are now in place.
MVC now has all the required intermunicipal collaboration framework agreements in place with all its neighbouring rural municipalities, says Reeve Bruce Beattie.
