Westlock-area municipalities will get back to the table this month to continue working on greater inter-municipal collaboration.
Westlock mayor Ralph Leriger said plans were in place to resume meetings between the three municipalities some time in January. “I can’t predict how that’s going to go, but certainly it’s important to get back to the table and we’re doing everything we can to do so,” he said.
Clyde mayor Doug Nyal confirmed his desire to resume discussions about regional collaboration, and said he would expect to begin with “baby steps,” talking about areas where collaboration already exists such as water and waste services.
“We have good strong partnerships there now, but there can always be some improvement,” he said.
“That’s part of the discussions as the three municipalities get together — the pros and cons about what’s working good, what can be improved on.”
Collaboration discussions were put on hold last fall after Westlock County, the managing partner in charge of a $250,000 provincial collaboration grant, unilaterally suspended the services of the facilitator who was guiding those discussions in September.
Westlock County reeve Bud Massey said at the time the intention in putting the facilitator “on hiatus” was to have further discussions between the three municipalities about what the focus of discussions would be, “so the agenda we have will be driven by the three municipalities and less by the facilitator.”
Both Leriger and Nyal said the move had come as a surprise to them, as they only learned about the decision after seeing a copy of an e-mail firing the facilitator.
Massey declined an interview for this story, but said in an e-mail plans are afoot to schedule a meeting and he also said $21,000 of the $250,000 has been spent so far.
Leriger had little to say last week about the circumstances surrounding the county’s decision in September, expressing a desire to move forward.
“I think 2014 is what it is,” he said. “I can’t change history.”
Nyal emphasized his desire to simply get back to the table and get discussion started without tackling any of the more controversial issues such as fire service.
A disagreement between the village and the county about funding a new fire hall ultimately led to the county pulling one of its fire service vehicles out of the Clyde Fire Hall — a move some have suggested will have a negative impact on fire protection in the eastern part of the county.
“If you go to the table and say we’re going to take on the toughest one, quite often it falls off the rails before you even get down to looking at it,” Nyal said.
“Baby steps is what I’m suggesting. That’s where we were at the end before the county made the decision to shut it down, or put it on hiatus.”
