OLDS — Representatives of the Town of Olds and Mountain View County are renegotiating a sub agreement to share firefighting costs.
A news release announcing those negotiations was issued Tuesday.
The sub agreement covers operational and capital funding for fire services provided to both municipalities.
“This agreement reduced duplication of services and expenditures and ensured benefits and cost savings were afforded to both the Town of Olds and Mountain View County,” Tuesday’s release said.
Last summer, the Town of Olds issued a notice of termination of the fire services sub agreement with the county.
A news release issued at that time said the intent of that action was to trigger a dispute resolution process within the current agreement before it expires in 2023.
The Albertan sent questions on the matter to town officials. However, instead, we were referred to another news release on the matter issued last summer.
According to that 2021 news release, “the focus of the discussions relates to base cost funding where regardless of call volume or location, there are costs to operate a fire department that both municipalities should bear a burden for, and that in sharing these costs it is a savings for both.
“We also believe that the actual manpower costs directly related to firefighting within each municipality be funded by that municipality so that one municipality is not subsidizing the costs of another.
“The application of a per capita funding analysis does not adequately reflect investment in protective services as private residences in comparison to commercial or industrial occupancies have different resource requirements,” it said.
In its latest news release, the Town of Olds said the purpose of the latest negotiations is to “create a revised agreement with a funding model that is both fair and equitable for both municipalities to operate the Olds Fire Department, ensuring that both municipalities should bear a fair burden so that one municipality is not subsidizing the operational costs of another.”
"Members of the Inter-Municipal Cooperation Committee (ICC) are looking forward to continued engagement and discussions which will benefit all residents with exceptional fire protection and other related emergency and rescue services, as the agreement revisions are developed,” the release added.
A request for comment was issued to Mountain View County chief administrative officer Jeff Holmes, but no reply was received by publication.
