WHEREAS the Water for Life funding initiative, as part of the Alberta Municipal Water/Wastewater Partnership, provides funding for projects to urban municipalities under 45,000 population, regional commissions, and only to eligible hamlets within rural municipalities; andWHEREAS only projects supporting urban industrial and residential development will be accepted by the program, and only urban growth estimates are permitted to be included in design calculations; andWHEREAS within those projects rural industrial and residential flows will be limited to twenty (20%) per cent of the flow, thereby limiting the potential growth of rural development to a pace that must be below or equal to that of the urban development; andWHEREAS if rural industrial and residential flows exceed the twenty (20%) per cent limit, grant funding to urban municipalities will be reduced;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties request that the Government of Alberta amend the Water for Life funding initiative to provide for equity in the ability to develop for both urban and rural municipal governments;FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties request that the Government of Alberta review all funding grants and initiatives applying to both urban and rural municipalities to ensure that equity exists for both urban and rural municipal governments.

In a November 1, 2007 letter from the Hon. Luke Ouellette, Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation to Mayor Ken Graham, Town of Innisfail, advising that the Government of Alberta would be providing funding for design work on two regional projects under the Water for Life funding initiative, the following statement was included: “Inclusion of rural industrial and residential flows will be limited to twenty percent of the flow of the system.”

Alberta Transportation has advised that given current budgetary constraints and the broad scope of providing projects to non-urbanized communities, no changes of the nature suggested in this resolution are anticipated. The AAMDC will continue to bring this matter forward for more clarification at formal ministerial meetings.The association has recently been advised that Alberta Environment is investigating rural water supply options. The AAMDC will closely monitor the results of these investigations to see if they satisfy the intent of this resolution.