For those who thought the drama between the town and county was over just because they now have long-term recreational and fire services agreements in all likelihood will be disappointed.
The truth is we have only seen what in all likelihood will be the beginning of a tumultuous period in relations between municipalities.
Not that we expect there will be the ongoing tension between the two Barrhead municipalities that we have seen in recent years, but with others.
As part of the changes made to the Municipal Government Act (MGA), the provincial government made it mandatory that all municipalities come to Intermunicipal Collaborative Framework (ICF) agreements with every jurisdiction on its border on a wide variety of issues from shared water and sewage to joint land-use planning.
The municipalities have been given two years starting from April 2018 to come up with the agreements.
That is a lot of agreements to come up with in a relatively short period.
Admittedly, in many areas, the groundwork for these agreements have already been done, or even exist already in another form.
However, in many cases these agreements will have to be created from scratch and could involve areas neither side have contemplated as of yet.
Take for example at the latest Woodlands County meeting, where Fort Assiniboine Coun. Dale Kluin suggested that the Town of Barrhead could be persuaded in creating its own version of the healthy living program so that Fort Assiniboine area residents could take advantage of the program as part of the ICF negotiation process.
Athough Woodlands County chief administrative officer Luc Mercier quickly interjected that it would be unlikely that such a program would be included in any ICF negotiations it does showcase how difficult and how wide ranging the negotiations all the municipalities in the province will be.
And this is just one of the many ICFs both the town and county of Barrhead will have to sign with one of its more friendlier neighbours. The job that is in front of all of Alberta’s municipalities is truly daunting.
While we understand that the province wants to ensure that all of its citizens are getting the best bang for their buck by ensuring municipalities, especially those whose residents might take advantage of services in multiple jurisdictions, cooperate with each other, we question whether forcing neighbours to come to agreements is the best course of action. We also agree that in an ideal world cooperation is an effective way to ensure resources are utilized to their utmost.
But as we all know, we don’t live in a perfect world.
Municipalities are protective of what they see as theirs. Rightfully so, as their first and foremost responsibility is to their ratepayers. We just hope that the province, in an effort to foster more cooperation, does not create animosity between everyone involved and as a result, actually create an atmosphere in which agreements between municipalities become more difficult to obtain.
