Municipal Act not a cure-all
SPEARMAN EXPRESSES SOME CONCERNS WITH LEGISLATION
They place more emphasis on environmental protection. But changes to the province’s Municipal Government Act offer no protection against oil or gas drilling in Lethbridge neighbourhoods. That’s one of the concerns voiced by Mayor Chris Spearman, following release of the provincial government’s latest draft legislation governing Alberta’s cities and towns. And there’s no assurance of stability in the province’s grants to local government, he adds.
Spearman welcomes news that provisions in Bill 8: “An Act to Strengthen Municipal Government” add environmental protection as a core “municipal purpose.”
But it still leaves Lethbridge wide open for drilling rig operators exploring for oil or natural gas deposits, the mayor warns.
“It appears to stop short of granting municipalities any authority over activities like urban oil and gas drilling, which in our view have environmental implications.” That issue was raised several years ago, when the province’s energy officials granted a Calgary company permission to drill near Lethbridge’s western boundary, close to new high schools and new homes in the fast-growing Copperwood neighbourhood.
After Lethbridge citizens mounted a sustained protest, the company abandoned its project.
While drilling activity could derail the city’s plans for new westside subdivisions, so could an unexpected halt to the province’s grants in support of civic services.
Proposed changes to the municipal act, Spearman says, “don’t respond to our numerous requests to stabilize municipal funding so we can effectively plan for and address infrastructure and service requirements.”
It’s unrealistic to require municipalities to prepare threeyear operating and long-term capital plans when we are so reliant on provincial grants that can change without notice. – Chris Spearman – Lethbridge Mayor
“It’s unrealistic to require municipalities to prepare threeyear operating and long-term capital plans when we are so reliant on provincial grants that can change without notice,” he points out.
The bill is also illogical in calling for three-year plans, the mayor says, after the government changed municipal governments’ term of office to four years. A year after election, he explains, Lethbridge council members start working on a four-year operating budget. Two years later, they prepare a four-year capital improvement plan which will guide the incoming council.
“More thought needs to go into that,” he suggests.
The new government bill, announced by Municipal Affairs Minister Shayne Anderson, is the second followup to a “discussion guide” released in 2016. The latest version, Spearman points out, also mandates collaboration and partnerships between neighbouring municipalities and school boards.
That’s been happening here for many years, the mayor points out.
“We have already collaborated with Lethbridge County to develop a new Intermunicipal Development Plan,” he says. “We are also collaborating with the county on an airport master plan, and we provide various services from time to time.”
Spearman says the city is also consulting its Blackfoot Confederacy neighbours on matters like municipal development plans, as required under the new legislation. And for many years it’s partnered with local school boards — another new requirement — to fashion joint-use agreements covering schoolgrounds and adjacent city parks.
Referring to another section of the draft legislation, Spearman says a proposed maximum “tax ratio” between residential and nonresidential taxpayers will have no impact here. Bill 8 says one tax rate — for heavy industry, for example — can be no more than five times the residential rate. In some places, he says, that ration has been as high as 18:1.
“Our ratio is 2.39 to one, which is well below.”
Speaking for county council, Reeve Lorne Hickey has raised no specific issues, while expressing general approval of the draft legislation
“We are pleased to see the progress that has been made with revisions to the Municipal Government Act and look forward to it coming into effect this fall,” he says.
“The province has done a very thorough review process and we are happy to have been included in that process.”
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