The Town of Olds is contesting a policy recently renewed at a meeting of the Mountain View Regional Water Services Commission regarding the sale of water to third parties.
Councillors discussed the issue at its policies and priorities committee meeting on June 17.
The commission's policy states that no municipality shall enter into a third party water sale outside municipal boundaries without the approval of the MVRWSC. Norm McInnis, chief administrative officer of the town, told councillors he thought the policy hampered the town's ability to freely pursue economic opportunities with third parties.
“This policy does potentially handcuff us,” he said, adding he wants a legal opinion on whether the town has the right to sell water to third parties. “The concern is (if) we have a bona fide partnership with Mountain View County or with industry, that has to be approved by the commission. The commission could say no and that fetters our ability to structure things as we see fit.”
“It might just be (prudent) to have a legal opinion in our back pocket,” agreed Coun. Harvey Walsh. He added the commission needs to spell out good reasons not to provide water to potential third-party customers.
Walsh said he wondered how the commission could reject requests for water from potential customers when, in his view, the policy for third parties doesn't clearly spell out criteria for approvals. Walsh also disagreed with the commission's policy that it needs to approve third party agreements to purchase water from municipalities.
“If you can work out an agreement to provide water outside your boundaries, that's fine and good. Then why would (a partner) need to sign another agreement with the commission?” he said.
Coun. Murray Ball, who represents the town on the commission's board, said the issue currently revolves around whether or not the town can sell water to Mountain View County, which is not a member of the commission.
“We are trying to meet the needs of Mountain View County. We are entirely within our rights to do this,” Ball said.
The policy was renewed at the commission's May meeting.
“The commission clearly has a different perspective than we have. We're prepared to challenge (the policy),” Ball said.
Rick Blair, chair of the commission, said the policy for third-party water sales has been long-standing. Because it holds the water licence, the commission must be made aware of any agreements so that it can stay within its water allocation from the province.
“Nothing in this is new. There were some people that had said there was some ambiguity (in the policy) but this is pretty close to the water policy that was in place and revised in '09,” he said.
Blair also said any agreements are also subject to the approval of Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.
He said since the water commission's licence is only for 56,000 cubic metres of water per day, it needs to be able to monitor how much water it is selling to its members and customers.
“It's not that we don't want the Town of Olds to sell water. We want them to, but what they don't understand is that there has to be an agreement between (a third party) and the water commission. What we're saying is there's a process to go through. All we want is the process to be followed,” Blair said.
