The Town of Okotoks has been joined by High River Town Council in a grant application under the Alberta Community Partnership program. High River Town Council is supporting a request for qualifications (RFQ) and working towards developing a regional recycling program, organic waste collection and  the establishment of a regional Materials Recovery Facility.

Manager of Operational Services Eugene Lund says the response was positive and he's excited to see where things go from here.

"I was happy with the response. It received unanimous support, and I think that's important for dealing with these issues moving forward. I'm very interested to see where it goes and I think overall it's a good idea and something that we need to be looking for at moving forward."

Lund says they are working to determine the cost of a regional solid waste and recycling strategy.

"Basically what we're wanting to do here is, by developing the business case is, gain an understanding of what the cost of this facility would be versus some of the other alternatives that we could be exploring for service delivery and then decide whether or not that's economically feasible and sustainable over the long term."

He says the request for qualifications is the first step towards a business case.

"The RFQ process is the first step. It would be a competitive process, something that would be open to any firm or entity that was interested in doing that. They would submit a proposal for review and then from there they would select a consultant of a firm to then develop the business case."

The cost of the business case will be about $150,000, which should be entirely funded by the grant.

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