Mountain View County is fully supportive of the Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission and its work to get its finances in order, says Reeve Bruce Beattie.
The signal of confidence was given despite the fact that in recent weeks Didsbury, Carstairs, Sundre and Cremona have all indicated that they will no longer be members of the commission effective Jan. 1, 2016.
“We still support the commission. The board has been working hard to deal with the situation relative to the finances and the operational aspects that have come up,” said Beattie.
He added that he believes that the motions made by each of the councils are subject to ministerial approval and can be rescinded by each of the councils at a later date if the council members change their minds on the issue.
“It's not quite as cut-and-dried as we may think relative to withdrawal from the commission. It's my understanding that they'll have to go through an order-in-council so there's a little more to it than simply saying, ‘we're withdrawing',” he said.
Beattie said county council members believe that the service the commission provides is an important one and that the county fully supports the commission as it works through the issues the commission board has identified.
“I think we recognize very clearly that we all continue to generate waste. It doesn't matter whether you live in the towns or the county, we have waste that we need to dispose of in an environmentally safe manner so we believe it's an important service to provide to our residents at a reasonable cost,” he said.
At a recent Didsbury council meeting, Roy Brown, the town's chief administrative officer, told Didsbury council members that as far as Didsbury administrators are concerned, the commission hasn't been as innovative as it could have been in regard to arriving at alternative ways of disposing of waste.
Beattie said Didsbury has had a seat at the commission board table for as long as the commission has existed, and he thinks the appropriate way to raise those ideas is at the board table.
“I would expect the board is looking at alternatives,” he said, noting that the commission has been actively involved in various recycling programs.
"We still support the commission. The board has been working hard to deal with the situation relative to the finances and the operational aspects that have come up."Bruce Beattiereeve Mountain View County
