The foundation has been laid to facilitate future discussions between the Town of Sundre and Mountain View County as the two civic partners continue developing an inter-municipal collaboration framework master agreement.
Officials last week announced that both councils had approved the protocol agreement that establishes the groundwork outlining the negotiation process moving forward.
“This is an important step towards engaging in cooperative initiatives, and in highlighting and formalizing agreements to better manage growth, coordinate service delivery, and optimize resources for citizens in our communities. The framework is also a starting point to address future inter-municipal land use planning,” reads a jointly released press statement.
“I’m really enthusiastic about this,” said Mayor Terry Leslie, when asked for his thoughts on the progress towards improving inter-municipal collaboration with the county.
Negotiation teams have been selected and are focused on moving forward now that the protocol agreement — which outlines procedures to ensure a smoother process — is in place, he said.
The protocol agreement sets the stage for how, who and what will be discussed as well as how that information will be communicated with the public as progress is made towards creating a master agreement, he added.
“The inter-municipal collaboration framework is a process and the first part is the protocol agreement.”
The teams are comprised of three councillors from each municipality, including Reeve Bruce Beattie and Leslie, in addition to the municipalities’ chief administrative officers, reads the press release.
The next step is to complete the master agreement, which will outline all of the issues the municipalities will discuss before diving into discussing individual sub-agreements, said Leslie.
Once that master agreement is in place, the municipal partners will put together a timeline to tackle sub-agreements over the next two years as outlined by the modernized Municipal Government Act, he said.
“Our goal is to do that in a shorter time frame.”
Recreation and culture funding is a top priority for both councils, and chief administrative officers have already been engaging in preliminary discussions to prepare for upcoming negotiations, he said.
While concluding negotiations sooner rather than later is also an objective, Leslie said no one wants to rush to failure, and added that Mountain View County also has a multitude of other similar inter-municipal collaboration framework master agreements to complete with its many partners such as Olds, Didsbury, Cremona and Carstairs as well as other surrounding counties.
“We’ve got to fit into their schedule and be reasonable.”
The master agreement and associated sub-agreements will replace the Memorandum of Agreement that previously guided inter-municipal cooperation. The memorandum between the county and the town has been extended in order to facilitate continued discussions toward the new master agreement, reads the press release.
Sundre and Mountain View County currently share numerous services, including library, fire services, Family and Community Support Services, operation and capital costs for recreational facilities, and the recycle centre, the statement adds.
“We need to clearly outline where we want to go together in our future,” said Leslie.
“We want organized development that we both understand and see clearly as the best way to move ahead.”
Although the modernized Municipal Government Act does not specifically require the Town of Sundre to strike a similar agreement with other neighbouring municipalities such as Clearwater County, Leslie said meetings with other councils to discuss matters such as potential future developments are not uncommon.
