Town seeks cost sharing with county
By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Town of Strathmore is requesting help from the provincial government to restart talks on a cost sharing agreement with Wheatland County, saying the county is not paying its fair share.
Town administration worked with the county in negotiating a recreation cost sharing agreement between September 2019 and March 2020. Staff from both municipalities met eight times and were close to reaching a finalized draft agreement, but county council decided in August 2020 to stop the discussions to determine the financial impact of the property assessment model and the county finances. Since then, discussions were never restarted.
Strathmore town council approved a motion on April 7 to have Mayor Pat Fule sign a letter to be sent to Ric McIver, Alberta’s Minister of Municipal Affairs. According to the letter, ministerial assistance is required to bring each party together to restart talks on cost sharing and find a resolution.
“A letter to the minister could be instrumental in getting the recreation cost sharing back on the radar screen and this process restarted,” said Mel Tiede, the town’s director of corporate services.
Much of the discussion of cost-sharing centres around recreation facilities. The town operates six recreational facilities, funded primarily by property taxes. Operation of these facilities resulted in a net deficit of about $14.7 million between 2016 and 2020, with financial losses growing each year. Paying for these losses equals about a quarter of the town’s yearly tax revenue.
Meanwhile, Wheatland County provided a letter to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs in January, describing its regional cost sharing efforts. This letter describes the amounts the county has provided to surrounding municipalities, including funding through the County Regional Infrastructure Services Program (CRISP), which paid surrounding municipalities for use of their facilities by county residents.
Through CRISP, the county provided almost $963,000 to the town between 2016 and 2020. However, CRISP funding had a five-year term that expired in 2020, and the program was not extended into the county’s 2021 budget.
A cost sharing agreement remains in place between Wheatland County, the Town of Strathmore and Golden Hills School Division for Strathmore Motor Products Sports Centre. Under this agreement, Wheatland County contributed $3 million in up-front capital costs, and now provides 30 per cent of operating losses and $21,000 for maintenance per year, totalling over $146,000 over the past two years.
Another aspect of cost sharing is support of community groups.
The town made payments to 60 local groups and organizations totalling about $2.7 million over the same five-year period, equalling about five per cent of net municipal taxes. This figure did not include contributions to the Strathmore Handi-bus, as noted by Councillor Jason Montgomery during the town council meeting. The four organizations that have received the largest grant payments are the Strathmore Municipal Library (about $1.4 million), Wheatland and District Emergency Medical Services ($459,000), Wheatland Society of Arts ($197,000) and Strathmore and District Agricultural Society ($107,000).
Wheatland County provides grant funding to local groups and associations as part of the Community Enhancement Regional Board (CERB). Between 2016 and 2020, the county contributed over $131,000 to support Strathmore groups through this program.
The combined effect of recreational deficits and grant payments to community groups and organizations is straining Strathmore’s budget, according to town administration.
The town’s letter suggests the respective populations of Strathmore (13,756) and Wheatland County (8,788) could be considering in the development of a new cost-sharing model. Town administration will be discussing cost sharing with Chestermere and Rocky View County as well, said Doug Lagore, CAO.
In a letter included in Wheatland County’s April 6 meeting agenda, McIver wrote he was concerned there has been no meaningful progress to resolve cost-sharing between Wheatland County and Town of Strathmore, especially regarding recreation services.
“While the Municipal Government Act provides me with authority to directly intervene in this matter, my preference is to enable locally developed solutions. Therefore, I encourage both municipalities to resume working together on this critical issue to the best of both your abilities and for the benefit of all your citizens,” McIver wrote in the letter.