Alberta’s Municipal Government Act has a few big changes being proposed to it by the NDP government in the province and while many of the alterations to it are progressive policies welcomed by cities and towns – there is a glaring absence in the legislation of a way to help resort communities.
Canmore, Banff and Jasper have spent more than a decade – and just as many municipal affairs ministers if not more – explaining in detail what exactly the problem is and how it can be addressed.
These communities shoulder an infrastructure burden far greater than their population base. With close to four million visitors through Banff National Park’s east gates last year, a town like Banff must have sewer systems, roads, traffic notification systems for more than its 8,000 residents.
Banff’s mayor has said it so many times it is become a worn out phrase but the municipality handles the flushing toilets for 30,000 or more people – not just those who live in the community and pay the taxes to support those services.
Even Rachel Notley’s government in power for over a year has already had two municipal affairs ministers in that office – municipal officials in the Bow Valley are a broken record of valid concerns and as Albertans we have to wonder if anybody in Edmonton is actually listening.
It is not even a new concept. B.C. has resort communities and the key here is money. Resort communities in the province to the west of us receive money annually based hotel occupancies from the year before. That money has to be used for initiatives directly related to tourism.
There are so many projects that both Banff and Canmore have undertaken or could in the future that directly relate to tourism and yet their ability to fund themselves is limited to property taxes. Taxpayers in these communities are footing the bill to play host to visitors from the rest of Alberta, Canada and internationally. There is a reason Travel Alberta’s marketing campaign is heavily doused with Rocky Mountains – this is where people want to visit – we live in the playground and they all want a turn on the swing.
Study after study has been commissioned by successive municipal affairs ministers – including the current one Danielle Larivee who is in Canmore Friday (June 10) for an input session on the Municipal Government Act. This is the piece of legislation that would have to be changed in order to find relief for resort communities – that includes Jasper too not just this valley.
Many mayors, including our own, and the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association would suggest that sustainable funding mechanisms for all municipalities is what was left out of this critically important legislative rewrite.
But that is a much bigger hairy political beast to wrangle for our government in its sophomore year. It translates into the potential for cities and towns in Alberta to take on new taxing powers as a means to increase revenue sources outside taxation.
Finding a way for municipalities to increase revenues without relying for the most part on property taxes (photo radar too) is closely linked to the issue that resort communities in Alberta face.
The government should use the MGA to establish resort communities as a test run for all other cities and towns in the province when it comes to sustainable funding or new taxing powers. Create a system for these three towns, see if the system works, adjust it and apply it to the remainder.
