Regional water asset management study to include county participation

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Wheatland County is taking steps to participate in an Alberta Community Partnership grant application with respect to the Wheatland Regional Corporation’s regional water asset management study.

Council voted to participate either as the managing or a participating partner, May 19, alongside the Villages of Hussar, Rockyford, and/or Standard, should they also choose to participate. 

“On May 5 the WRC requested support from its municipal shareholders for an ACP grant application to complete a regional water asset management study,” said Jose Podio-Cuervo, speaking on behalf of county administration. “The proposed project intended to support the development of an asset management framework for the WRC’s regional water infrastructure.”

The application would need to be submitted by municipal partners with one municipality acting as the managing partner.

The managing partner municipality carries the administration requirements of the application and can only act as such for one ACP application program project per year.

Alberta Community Partnership Program (ACP) is a provincial grant program intended to support regional collaboration and municipal capacity building, which includes several funding components including intermunicipal collaboration.

“Although the project relates to asset management, the broader purpose is to support a municipally-owned regional water utility that provides shared service delivery to multiple municipal stakeholders,” said Podio-Cuervo. “This aligns more closely with the intermunicipal collaboration component than the asset management support component as the asset management support component appears to be more limited in scope and applies only to municipalities with a population of 5,000 people or less.”

The intermunicipal collaboration component is intended for partnerships of two or more local governments to develop or improve regional service delivery plans, frameworks, and efficiencies.

The Government of Alberta has not yet published the final ACP program details for 2027. County administration currently anticipates the next ACP intake will be open this fall, with the intermunicipal collaboration applications due possibly late November.

“This is a very important study for WRC. It’s something they absolutely need to do. I’m glad that administration is happy to support it and to work with the other municipalities to decide who will act as managing partner and who will be participating,” said Coun. Shannon Laprise.

“This should be relatively easy because the infrastructure that was all developed is under 10 years old and it all has engineering drawings, and everything should be there. I would suggest that anything we do in the future building something comes with an asset management plan as part of the original plan,” added Reeve Scott Klassen.

Council voted unanimously to participate in the application but left their position open ended in order to work with the other potential partner municipalities to determine which would be best suited to act as the managing partner.