The provincial cabinet will decide whether municipalities seeking withdrawal from the Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission by 2015 will be allowed to leave, according to the commission chair.
“You can't just withdraw. There are certain criteria that have to be followed. I and the CAO have to send in a bunch of information regarding the financial impact if all the municipalities left,” said Mary Anne Overwater.
The commission has formally accepted the letters of withdrawal. Overwater said it will then forward them to the ministry of municipal affairs, which in turn will forward them to the cabinet, which has final say over the matter.
“So it's not as simple as saying we don't want to belong anymore. The cabinet will decide whether they belong or not,” Overwater said.
The chair said the commission is also seeking legal advice on the intermunicipal agreement that municipalities signed in 2001.
Even if the departing members leave, they will still have obligations to the commission, Overwater said.
“They would have to pay the closure and post closure of the landfill, their percentage of it per capita,” she said. “That's their responsibility.”
Of the six member municipalities within the commission, all except for two — the Town of Olds and Mountain View County — have sent letters stating their intention to leave.
Overwater said the members were expressing their frustration with the commission's increased requisitions and financial woes.
The commission is sticking to its requisitions, Overwater said, adding the board is developing a business plan that would keep it sustainable.
Service cuts would have to be considered once the board determines what direction to take the commission.
“Once we get clarity from municipal affairs, clarity from legal opinion, then we will start the business plan along with the help of the mayors and the CAOs and the reeve and the commission board,” she said.
