Paintearth County chief administrative officer (CAO) Michael Simpson appeared as a delegation before Castor council during its March 12 meeting.
Simpson attended the meeting as part of a tour of the regional urban municipalities within the county to open the dialogue between the two jurisdictions on creating a new master water agreement.
“There’s potential for more (customers) in the rings around each urban centre,” said Simpson.
“It’s way less risky for the town if the agreement was with the county.”
According to Simpson, the agreement would benefit the town because instead of forming individual agreements with municipal water users outside of its borders, the county would become the sole customer and handle the customer billing. In the event of non-payment, the county would also take care of handling that issue as well.
“We’re trying to find ways to increase the availability of water in the county,” said Simpson.
Simpson says that any new county connections to the town’s water system would be “subject to availability” based on water modelling, and applicants would be 100 per cent responsible for the cost of the installation.
“If we think it can be floated based on our water modelling application, we’ll bring it to you,” said Simpson.
“We’re offering to be the solution to keep everyone hydrated … regional connected infrastructure is kind of a progressive way forward.”
According to Mayor Richard Elhard in a follow-up interview, council discussed the county’s proposal in a closed session at the end of the meeting and ultimately decided to remain with the status quo.
“We’re just not comfortable at this time to supply water to multiple users in the county,” said Elhard.
Elhard says there are currently around a dozen or more separate agreements in place with county users of town serviced water and non-payment, Simpson’s major point as to why the master agreement would benefit the town, has never been a problem.
“If we did (have a problem), we’d just turn the water off,” said Elhard.
One major concern noted by council, if the agreement were to proceed, was the potential subdivision of county properties that were on waterlines which would result in a larger and larger draw from the town’s water system, and more wear-and-tear on the town’s water infrastructure.
The proposed agreement was put forward, and denied, through the lens of the current drought situation in the province and council’s concern over the system becoming over-taxed.
“More pressure on the system, it can cause issues,” said Elhard.
Those county residents who are already on the town’s water system have individual agreements with the municipality and are changed at the same rate as town residents for water use. Additionally, any pipework or repairs that need to be conducted on the waterline outside of the town limits are undertaken at the cost of the customer.
In a follow-up with Simpson, he has also attended the Coronation council, which met the proposal with optimism, and plans to attend the March Village of Halkirk council meeting on March 14.
TRAVIS-MJ
Castor’s current agreement with the province which handles oversize load permitting in the municipality is coming to an end.
The provincial program, the Transportation Routing and Vehicle Information System Multi-Jurisdiction (TRAVIS-MJ) is a single place for commercial operators to access permits.
“We don’t have to manage any of the oversize loads that go through town,” said Town of Castor CAO Donna Rowland.
According to Rowland, the town gets commercial vehicles requiring permits passing through town at least every month, and in the fall that number can be even higher.
There are no budget implications to the municipality for continuing with the agreement.
Council voted in favour of continuing the agreement, which will remain in effect until March 31, 2027, in a motion by Coun. Kev MacDougall.
Pool fees
After increasing fees in 2023, and after reviewing what other municipalities are planning for 2024, the Castor Rec. Board has recommended to council that fees remain the same for 2024.
Council, after a very brief discussion, agreed with the recommendation and Coun. MacDougall motioned to leave fees at 2023 levels, which carried.