Municipal Area Partnership meetings should be held on a quarterly or even a biannual basis instead of every month ñ because more business can be accomplished between its members one on one, Mountain View County reeve Paddy Munro suggested at last Tuesday's MAP meeting.ìSome of the meetings need to be between the county and the individual towns,î Munro said.As an example, he pointed to a recent Greenwood Area Planning Partnership meeting between county and Town of Sundre officials where ìwe broke the ice and got into the issues.îìI'm not asking for an answer today,î Munro continued, and Mayor Judy Dahl said she appreciated that, since Olds council had not discussed the idea.ìI respect Mr. Munro's comments, but this is premature,î Dahl said.As well, she said, ìI'm not prepared at all to make a decision because it's going against the whole concept of why we have Municipal Area Partnerships.îDidsbury mayor Brian Wittal said he felt similarly but added it would depend on whether the MAP committee planned to get involved in new projects.ìIf we're not going to take on anything new, I don't see why we can't scale back a bit,î Wittal said.The committee agreed to bring the suggestion forward at the next MAP meeting on Oct. 26, which all six councils will attend. Dahl also drew attention to a CAOs report being developed on the structure of MAP meetings.ìI look forward to everyone getting together,î Dahl said. ìWe do have 10-year agreements with the county. In honour of those agreements that have been signed and sealed we might have to negotiate a little deeper.îIn other business, the committee directed the CAOs to compile data on community bus service provided by the towns, including the percentage of users residing in the towns and the county, and report back on the feasibility of moving to a regional system.The request came after Wittal reported on Didsbury's loss of storage space for its community bus and other members also said they were struggling with funding issues after the province eliminated its transportation grants last year.ìIf it's a service,î Wittal asked, ìshould it be included in our recreational and cultural agreementî with the county?After the meeting, Munro reiterated his qualms about the MAP approach.ìInstead of just dumping it on the CAOs we need to get right to the issues, and I can't see that happening with so many there,î he said.A major initiative undertaken by the two previous county councils and former administration, along with the county's urban partners, the MAP committee includes one member each from Olds, Didsbury, Sundre, Carstairs and Cremona and three from the county. The CAO from each municipality attends in an ex-officio capacity but does not vote unless authorized as the representative of council.The committee serves as an advisory board to its member municipalities and provides recommendations but is not intended to replace the local decision-making process.
