City set for neighbourly collaboration talks
City council’s newest councillor and its most experienced will put forth Medicine Hat’s case during coming provincially mandated talks between city, town and county officials about greater collaboration in southeastern Alberta.
This year, updates to the Municipal Government Act compel local governments to engage with their neighbours on issues of service delivery and possibly acting collaboratively to extend capital resources, or lower costs to taxpayers.
On Tuesday, city council approved an administrative briefing about the logistics of talks, the suggestion that facilitators could be needed to reach common ground, and named two council reps on the committee.
Mayor Ted Clugston later appointed first-time councillor Kris Samraj and veteran council member Julie Friesen, though actual talks likely won’t proceed until 2019.
The issue hasn’t yet been dealt with at Redcliff or Cypress County councils.
Right now the city, town and county have complex working relationships that Friesen called strong.
“This contemplates a stronger working relationship for municipalities that have a common border,” said Friesen. “We’ve had a strong working relationship with the county and Redcliff is a good neighbour as well.”
The requisite Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework must include discussions about transportation planning, water and wastewater treatment, solid waste, emergency services, recreation, or any other services provided by more than one municipality in an agreement.
Friesen had been a driving force between the Tri-Area Intermunicipal Development plan that the three parties signed about 10 years ago, which she cited as a good starting point for new talks.
“Some of this will be review, but some will be new ... that could lead to monetary benefits for our citizens.”
Samraj was absent from Monday’s meeting, but had won a council seat last October with a platform hinting on exploring alternate routes of service delivery.
Clugston also said that his selection was the result of Samraj taking on the part-time role of city council as a fulltime position, and scheduling six elected representatives along with staff members might require flexibility.
Clugston said the discussions could be wide ranging.
“It’s basically anything we share or is provided in one municipality, it’s well known that I’ve made bones about recreational facilities in the city,” said Clugston. “It’s been forced upon us by the province, but it doesn’t have to be adversarial. We can sit down and talk about making a deal.”
A steering committee will guide initial talks on a statement of principles and framework before any specific talks take place, likely not until late 2019.
That holdup is because the three parties are already discussing updates to a decade-old three-party agreement on land development zoning on common borders.
Redcliff and Medicine Hat, as well, are currently updating their internal municipal development plans.
The three parties have received a $200,000 grant from the province to assist with the project and each contributed $20,000 to fill out the total $260,000 budget.
Most of the money will be spent on a third-party facilitator that will be brought in to find common ground and advance talks.
City chief administrative officer Merete Heggelund said the use of a facilitator could be crucial.
“We’re three parties with different priorities and service levels,” she told council, adding there could be bilateral agreements signed between two parties, or a number of combinations.
“We don’t have the ability to force anything on another party, so this will be consensus-based.”
The three parties have a complex set of working agreements in place already, though Friesen and Clugston both said it’s too early to discuss what areas might be expanded.
Redcliff contracts sewer service from the city but built its own water treatment plant several years ago. Cypress County accepts bulk delivery of water for residents near Medicine Hat and on the Irvine regional waterline.
Medicine Hat and Cypress county are still negotiating a fire response agreement for areas south of the city limits, where the county created a station this year, but would depend on city trucks to backstop the service.
Last year, the three parties jointly studied possibilities of greater coordination of garbage collection. That report is due this spring.