Municipalities across the Parkland will have to decide by March 31st whether they want to be a part of the future Inter-Mountain Watershed District.
A meeting took place yesterday afternoon between the province and conservation representatives to discuss the proposal to amalgamate the Turtle River and Intermountain conservation districts. Many city and RM officials were in attendance as well.
Should a member municipality choose not to sign off on the proposal; they will lose more than their matched funding from the province. "We would actually lose access to a number of other programs that are proposal-based, that you have to be a conservation district to apply for". Noted Jeff Thiele, Manager of the Intermountain Conservation District.
One concern that was brought up at the meeting is the fact that the Intermountain Watershed District will be one of the largest districts in the province, but no additional funding has been offered by the province yet to cover any extra costs.
".. the two conservation districts and the municipalities are spending quite a bit of time and money on formulating this draft proposal and going to some extra meetings that we wouldn't actually have, so it's actually costing us quite a bit more than we had budgeted for this year. Hopefully at some point the province is going to look at some extra funding for this".
Overall, the meeting went smoothly, and the representatives from the provincial government were able to knowledgably answer questions and concerns. The province has set a target date of January 1st, 2020, to make the amalgamation official.
