With a slate of changes to the Municipal Government Act announced by the province last week, local elected officials say there are not a lot of surprises, or contention over the changes.
That’s because the proposed changes had, for the most part, consensus among Alberta municipalities and bigger, more controversial changes are expected next year, according to Canmore Mayor John Borrowman.
“I wasn’t expecting that much with this announcement and in fact the province said some time ago this announcement would be the non-contentious stuff they have heard,” he said. “That will be in the next phase of the MGA rewrite.
“I looked through it and honestly, most of it reflects things at least for the Town of Canmore that we are already doing.”
The changes, announced March 16, are proposed to improve accountability, governance, manage growth and viability.
“The legislative amendments introduced today are an important milestone for the Municipal Government Act,” said Minister of Municipal Affairs Diana McQueen. “The proposed changes will give our communities the legislation they need to grow and thrive. We look forward to continuing to work with our municipal partners and key stakeholders over the coming months towards the completion of this important review.”
The act proposes to require municipalities to adopt a public participation policy, develop a code of conduct for elected officials and define what meetings may be closed to the public. It also sets out to give municipalities the power to pass a bylaw that sets how many signatures are needed for a petition and extends the timeline for validation.
It addresses public notification methods that will likely include, for the first time, electronic methods of notification. Further changes aim to provide clarity on the roles and responsibilities of council and administration and require municipalities to adopt at a minimum a three-year operating budget and five-year capital plan.
Some of the changes are already in place in the valley. Canmore, for example, has a public participation policy and Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen said her community’s financial planning process meets the proposed changes already.
“For Banff, particularly on the budget one, we already produce a three-year operating budget and a 10-year capital plan and we just completed a four-year corporate plan,” she said.
It is the bigger changes expected in the next phase of the process where both mayors are looking for significant issues facing municipalities to be addressed. In particular, Sorensen said the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association stance that communities’ need to have the resources and the authority to deliver services.
“And specifically for our three communities (Canmore, Banff, Jasper), to grow our tourism economies,” she said. “To remain competitive in Banff we have to invest and reinvest in amenities and infrastructure that are often a higher standard than other communities because of the travellers that come and visit us.”
Borrowman said much of the input Canmore provided the government would be addressed in the next phase, including the “simple fact that property taxes are not an adequate source of revenue to operate municipalities anymore, particularly when provincial funding is uncertain.”
