Five municipalities in southeast Alberta eye merger

Five municipalities in southeastAlberta are considering a merger in order to save money.

Brooks, Bassano, Duchess, Rosemary and the County of Newell want public feedback on becoming a regional municipality.

The mayor of Brooks, Barry Morishita, believes bringing services under one umbrella could save between $8 million and $12 millionperyear.

"So we have five corporate entities that have five corporate responsibilities and so you have resources attached to doing all those five separately right now," he said.

"And we have some great examples of other regionalization things that have worked, like our water system is regionalized our solid waste, like our landfill, is regionalized."

Morishita also pointed out there are 32 elected officials for 25,000 people.

"So decision making in a group setting like that. I think you have efficiencies," he said.

Morishita says they want to hear from the public at meetings over the next few months and if there is consensus, the municipalities would ask the province to approve the new region.

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