Mountain View County councillors plan to bring up several issues when they meet with provincial government ministers and department heads at this week's Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMD&C) conference in Edmonton, says Reeve Bruce Beattie.An independent association comprising Alberta's 69 counties and municipal districts, the AAMD&C promotes its member communities through lobbying and other activities.Reeve Beattie says one key issue MVC will be bringing up this week involves recent calls for changes to taxation policy.“Some of our primary concerns are resolutions that came out of the recent Alberta Urban Municipalities (conference) in terms of taxation policies in the province,” said Beattie.“AUMA has passed a resolution that would ask the province to change to market value assessment on farmland. That would have a significant impact on our ratepayers and on the county in terms of our contribution towards education in the province. That will be one of the major things we will be talking about.”The AUMA is the urban counterpart to the AAMD&C, and includes representatives from all the urban centres in Mountain View and Red Deer Counties.MVC has asked for meetings with several government ministers, including the environment minister, at this week's AAMD&C conference, he said.“We will also be talking about some of the environmental issues, such as the Red Deer River situation and flooding concerns,” he said.The county will also be calling on the provincial government to move ahead with major changes to the QEII and Highway 27 intersection east of Olds, an intersection the county believes is long overdue for upgrades, he said.“It's something we have identified as a concern and we will be bringing that up at our meeting with Alberta Transportation. We want to get this back on the agenda,” he said.“It's a safety concern. With all the traffic that is flowing along there, it is a very poorly designed and a dangerous intersection.”
