Details surrounding the use of public money to reach the out-of-court settlement in the Takhini North infrastructure dispute will remain secret.

Mayor Bev Buckway said this morning a request to remove the confidentiality requirement went out to the three parties last week, but no agreement on the question was reached.

Buckway declined to identify which party or parties refused to make the details public, citing the requirement for confidentiality.

The agreement was signed by the city, the Takhini North Residents' Association, and the Alberta Lawyers Legal Association.

It was Coun. Doug Graham who requested during last Monday's regular council meeting that the city seek a removal of the confidentially clause, as the settlement involves the use of public money.

Therefore, he told his colleagues, taxpayers have the right to know what the deal entails.

The city has spent $44,760 on legal fees to early September, with invoices still outstanding for the month of September, when the agreement was reached, city manager Dennis Shewfelt said last week.

Seventy-three residents of Takhini North sued the city, and named a couple of local lawyers in the process, for not ensuring duplexes in the neighbourhood were up to required standards before the federal government was allowed to sell them to a local company in the late 1990s.

The private company then sold off the units individually, though water services to each unit did not meet city standards.

As the city planned for the Takhini North upgrade, it moved ahead with plans to charge local residents the entire cost of bringing the water services up to standard.

Many Takhini residents, however, suggested they were not aware of the substandard water services when they bought their homes.

They also argued the city had a duty to make sure the services were up to those standards before it permitted Ottawa to sell to the properties, just as it had done in Takhini East and Valleyview.

When lawyers are named in legal actions, they are often defended by legal associations they pay insurance to – in this case, the Alberta lawyer's association.

Buckway said the inclusion of a confidentiality clause is standard when parties enter into mediation, and that's what happened in this case.

Takhini resident Patricia Cunning, who had launched her own private action against the city, would only say last week that the residents never felt any need for a confidentiality clause.