The Town of Whitecourt and Woodlands County are pouring over their new intermunicipal collaboration framework.
The two municipalities had reached a stalemate when negotiating the agreement, so turned the matter over to third party arbitration. The arbitrator held their hearings in the fall of 2021, and handed down their decision on Feb. 4, 2022.
In separate news releases, both the Town and County say they will not be commenting until their respective arbitration teams have had a chance to review the 172-page document. However, they both remain committed to working together.
The new agreement includes new funding formulas for things like fire services and recreational services.
For fire services, the arbitrator sided with the Town of Whitecourt, saying there should be a new funding model tied to call hours. The new model will go into effected on Jan. 1, 2023.
The new recreation funding model was a little more complicated. The arbitrator set a formula for the County’s contributions based on the populations of the County electoral districts of Whitecourt West, Whitecourt Central and Whitecourt East. The Town is bound by the same formula for County facilities that Town residents use.
The entire document has been posted to both the Town of Whitecourt website and the Woodlands County website for the public to review.
