There appears to be little movement in the arbitration process between the Town of Drayton Valley and Brazeau County.
Story continues below
In response to a question at the public input session at Tuesday’s meeting, County Reeve Bart Guyon said his municipality was waiting for clarification on exactly what issue is at stake.
“We’ve asked the Town what is the question the arbitrator will answer … the Town hasn’t got back to us,” he said. “Would you go to court not knowing what the issue is?”
The Town and the County were engaged in a mediation process throughout March in an attempt to come to a mutually agreeable resolution which would lead to the creation of an Intermunicipal Development Plan and an Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework, both of which are required by the province.
When the two municipalities failed to reach an agreement the process moved to the next step, which removes the need for agreement between the parties and turns to an outside body. “Arbitration is a quasi-judicial process in which a third party renders a decision after hearing evidence from all involved. The decision is binding on all parties,” according to Alberta Municipal Affairs.
The mediation sessions were held in private and minutes are not available. One major point of contention between the County and the Town has been the funding of joint recreation facilities, the majority of which are operated by the Town but funded by both municipalities. This year the County moved to cut its share of funding by more than 50 percent.
