NDP govt announces new Municipal Government Act

After years of delay, the Alberta government says it’s committing to a new framework for how municipalities operate.

Municipal Affairs Minister Deron Bilous announced Friday the NDP will introduce the new Municipal Government Act in the spring, aimed at making municipalities work together instead of being in competition with each other.

Bilous made the announcement at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Associaiton convention in Calgary, adding it will guide how roads and schools are built, as well address contentious issues like linear assessment, affordable housing and offsite levies.

After it’s introduced in the spring, the legislation will be made into law before municipal elections in the fall of 2017 and there will be clear incentives for municipalities to play by the new rules.

“Funding is a great way to help incent that behaviour and municipalities that work well together to provide services with each other will have the dollars to be able to do that,” he said, adding another big change will be the requirement of regions to be part of growth management boards, unlike the current framework.

“The challenge with a voluntary board is that members can decide when they want to participate, when they want to decline, but it makes it very challenging if you’re trying to have a truly integrated plan, for let’s say, delivering transportation or services,” he said.

Bilous said another goal of the Act is to improve municipal-provincial relationships, but it will not include election campaign finance reform.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said two key developments are the dates involved with the legislation and the issue of the growth management board for the Calgary region.

“It is critical that any such legislation abide by two criteria, the first is that membership must mandatory, it must apply to everyone in the region or it doesn’t work,” Nenshi said.

Such legislation could lead to changes with how the City of Calgary operates with Rocky View County, where there’s been longstanding issues.

“The voting and the amending formula must be in the hands of the members, not in the hands of government, under current legislation, the second criterion is met by growth management boards, but the first one is not, so we would not accept a growth management board in the Calgary region, unless the membership were mandatory,” Nenshi said.

Nenshi also applauded the fact that dates have been set for new legislation.

Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson, who also chairs the Calgary Regional Partnership, believes most members will be in favour.

“This is a step forward, we need some rules that everybody plays by,” he said. “We’ve been told in the past government that they were going to do something, they were going to do something, in the end it was the status quo, nothing really was done.”

There have been multiple reasons for delays, including municipal elections and the 2013 floods.