Rocky View County (RVC) council began the process of creating intermunicipal planning documents with neighbouring rural municipalities June 26 by adopting associated Terms of References at a regular meeting.
“There’s been extensive changes to the Municipal Government Act (MGA), and one of the big ones was adding a new purpose statement, which was that municipalities are expected to work collaboratively with adjacent municipalities, particularly in the area of funding intermunicipal services,” said Intergovernmental Affairs Manager Richard Barss.
Barss said RVC is now required to complete an Intermunicipal Collaboration Frameworks (ICF) and Intermunicipal Development Plans (IDPs) with adjacent municipalities that are not members of the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board by April 2020 in order to implement the change in purpose.
An ICF lays out how municipal service are delivered between adjacent municipalities, while an IDP is meant to minimize land use and development conflicts between the neighbours and outlines the processes for resolving issues that may arise.
At the meeting, council adopted Terms of References for IDPs and ICFs with rural neighbours – the Municipal District of Bighorn, Kneehill County, Mountain View County and Wheatland County. Barss said the County will complete the same process with Beiseker, Irricana and Crossfield in the fall.
Adopting the Terms of References kick-starts the process of completing ICFs and IDPs with the County’s rural neighbours. According to administration’s report, each ICF must be adopted as a bylaw and address how services including solid waste, recreation, emergency services, transportation, water and wastewater are delivered between the municipalities. Intergovernmental Affairs analyst Nesreen Ali said those bylaws must mirror the bylaws adopted by Bighorn, Kneehill, Mountain View and Wheatland. Each IDP must address future land use, future development, provision of transportation systems, financing infrastructure, environmental matters and provision of services.
Barss said councillors will have a role to play in completing the ICFs and IDPs. Each will be looked over by a review committee comprised of one to three RVC council members and a matching number of councillors from the neighbouring municipality.
“We are asking and hoping council will provide their participation in this process,” Barss said. “We’re hoping council will act as a sounding board and a resource.”
Council unanimously adopted the ICF Terms of Reference, and a unique joint IDP Terms of Reference for each municipality.
Once neighbouring municipalities have adopted the joint IDP Terms of Reference and any ICF Terms of Reference, administration can begin establishing the review committees and drafting the IDPs and ICFs
According to Manager of Communications Services Greg Kaiser, the County hopes to begin meeting with other municipalities as part of the process sometime in July but that could be pushed to early September if neighbouring municipalities have not approved their Terms of Reference by then. Review committee meetings are anticipated for later in the fall.
