Municipal Affairs will impose binding arbitration on the town and county to resolve the ongoing recreational agreement dispute.
That was the gist of the letter received by County of Barrhead council, as an addition to the agenda, at its meeting April 4.
Due to significant disagreement on funding models and recreational services, under Section 570 (c) of the Municipal Government Act, Municipal Affairs minister Shaye Anderson intends to use his authority to appoint an arbitrator to hear the details and issue a binding order.
“Obviously we now have to prepare for arbitration, however that looks like,” reeve Doug Drozd said.
“I don’t have any information on the process yet and have not heard back from Municipal Affairs regarding the name of the arbitrator,” chief administrative officer (CAO) Debbie Oyarzun said.
“Arbitration is based on information provided and there’s going to be a lot of requests from both sides of the table for it, but in the end, any decisions are made solely on the numbers and the facts supporting them,” Drozd said.
On a question from Coun. Darrell Troock regarding the terminology behind ‘binding arbitration’ and whether, or not there is an appeal process, Oyarzun said there is not.
“Think of the process as a marital relationship, for lack of a better metaphor,” she said, adding when a relationship is in trouble, typically mediation is involved.
“When that fails, you go to court, or in this case, arbitration,” Oyarzun added.
However, there was some confusion which act the arbitrator would operate under — the Arbitration Act or the Municipal Government Act.
“I’m having a really hard time wrapping my mind around this,” Troock said, adding he understood that the arbitrator in question would follow the rules outlined in the MGA.
Oyarzun and Drozd disagreed.
“There is a section of the Arbitration Act and that’s what their [arbitrator] rules fall under,” Drozd said to clarify, adding he believed Troock was alluding to general flaws in the process of having municipal affairs involved.
“Most arbitrators are typically retired judges and they must adhere to the Arbitrator’s Act,” Oyarzun said, adding the Arbitration Act trumps the MGA in this instance.
In terms of recreational agreements, she said there is not a lot in the MGA that provides direction.
Regardless, Troock said the whole idea bothered him.
“There’s no law that forces another municipality to contribute funds to another, at least to my knowledge and this arbitration thing is such a grey area,” he said.
Coun. Ron Kleinfeldt agreed.
“I find it hard to believe that any judge can be unbiased because it all depends on their background,” Kleinfeldt said, adding if the judge comes from a recreational background, there was no doubt how the decision would go in his mind.
“It’s going to be an interesting process,” Troock added.
Town of Barrhead CAO Martin Taylor said the process is between the two councils and Municipal Affairs and did not know whether the letter from Anderson would be part of town council’s agenda at its meeting April 11.
