Mountain View County council has passed a motion providing one-year notice to withdraw from the Central Alberta Economic Partnership (CAEP).
The move came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
"The current municipal representative (on CAEP) has had little to no interaction with the organization to date," administration said in a note to council.
"Also, with the recent changes to CAEP committees and working groups, administration questions participation in an organization that has little to no engagement of their members and believes that with the recent changes that they are further moving away from this pertinent part of the organization."
Other municipalities have recently left CAEP or given notice of the intention to leave, councillors heard. Those withdrawing their membership include the Town of Rimbey, Ponoka County and the City of Red Deer.
Mountain View County's current annual membership fee in CAEP, $5,229.60, is calculated at 40 cents per capita.
"I think it is a great organization and the fundamentals of it and what it is trying to do are good, but I just think they need to revisit the way that they communicate with their members and how they support their membership," said county councillor Angela Aalbers.
"We've been struggling for three years now to try and get them to understand that communication is the key to economic development in this region. I don't think we've had the responses that our council is hoping to see and so we hope that by putting in our letter of withdrawal that that will spark a better communication."
Should things change, the county may consider withdrawing the withdrawal letter, she said.
"In our withdrawal letter we will state that we would like to continue to work on building that relationship and a better communication strategy," she said.
"If we are able to achieve what we are hoping to get, on that communication changes, then I think we definitely consider withdrawing our withdrawal letter."
