With less than two months remaining in 2017, the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority remains without an approved budget.
Essex County Warden Tom Bain sits on the authority's board and says talks between the city and county continue but a settlement is not close.
He says the matter could go to arbitration but he's hoping an agreement is reached by the authority's December board meeting.
Bain says the CAO's are currently working on two recommendations.
"We continue to hammer away at a solution with the support of our CAO's, we've got another couple of options that we can look at and hopefully one of those will be acceptable," he says.
"We know there's going to be a deficit coming up in the future," he says. "The county's stance is lets put a little away now each year so when it's a rainy day, we got that reserve and it's kind of looking at how much."
The authority's administration had recommended a 4.11% increase but during budget deliberations all city representatives voted in favour of a zero based budget while all county reps voted against it.
Bain admits the situation is unique as in the past, a solution has always been reached.
City reps called for a zero percent increase in both 2017 and 2018 but the draft budget was ultimately rejected by county council.
The city held the majority vote last year, which alternatives year to year.