Morinville plans to sit down with Legal and Sturgeon County to negotiate a new deal for the regional water line, after a decision from the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) partially forced the town’s hand.
Morinville councillors received an explanation of the complicated AUC ruling at a meeting last Tuesday. Mayor Lloyd Bertschi said they now plan to sit down with the other municipalities to work out a new agreement.
“We will put a new water services agreement together based on the AUC directions and obviously Sturgeon County will sign that, because it is what the AUC dictated,” said Bertschi.
Last week when the Gazette reported on the issue, Bertschi indicated town council had not yet reviewed the decision with its lawyer and was not sure how Morinville would respond.
The dispute over the regional water supply line dates back to 2007. The line was built in 1980 to supply all three communities with water and, since 1992, has also provided part of St. Albert’s supply.
Morinville completed an engineering report in 2007 that recommended municipalities pay for the system’s long-term replacement. Morinville proposed a new water agreement with the two neighbouring municipalities, which in turn flatly rejected the proposed higher rates.
Morinville argued it was the sole owner of the water line and that Sturgeon County and Legal owned only an agreed portion of the line’s capacity.
Sturgeon and Legal countered that they are in fact co-owners and that Morinville could not change the rates without their consent.
The AUC did not definitively rule on the ownership issue, but stated very clearly it believed the provincial government intended the water line to be a jointly owned piece of infrastructure.
“There is no evidence that the parties or the provincial government contemplated that one of the municipalities would be entitled to recover its investments made to serve its own residents from the residents of the other municipalities.”
Despite what the original agreement said, Bertschi said he is disappointed the AUC did not recognize there is a real need to replace the water line.
“My biggest disappointment was the fact that they did not recognize that times have changed and while our initial agreements did not contemplate the replacement of the water line … municipalities have to look at those things.”
The AUC did allow a small increase to Sturgeon and Legal bills to help better cover Morinville’s administrative costs. Bertschi called that a plus, but said the municipalities really need to have a conversation about long-term replacement plans.
“That is a separate conversation that will need to be had,” he said. “I think that is part of the piece going forward.”
Economic growth in the region can only happen with good infrastructure, and if the municipalities don’t come to terms on how to keep that in place there will be no growth, he said.
