Province’s new weather emergency powers further erode local authority: municipalities
Alberta municipal associations are accusing the province of consolidating a “command-and-control big government” after introducing a bill expanding its powers during emergencies.
Bill 21, which will allow the province to assume authority over local emergency response during wildfire, flood and drought, is one of three bills introduced in recent weeks that have subordinated local authority, said the presidents of Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) and Alberta Municipalities.
“What’s being presented here is, ‘We’ve got this, hold my beer,’ ” said Paul Mclauchlin, RMA president and reeve of Ponoka County.
Mclauchlin and Tyler Gandam, president of Alberta Municipalities and mayor of Wetaskiwin, said they weren’t consulted on the new legislation. Gandam expressed similar frustration last month in response to Bill 20, which would grant the provincial government greater authority to intervene in municipal matters, including giving it the ability to remove municipal councillors and allow it to overrule municipal bylaws.
“If they’re coming up with solutions for problems that don’t exist, I’m curious as to why — and if it’s more overreach and control, then I wonder what the next bill coming out is going to look like as they continue to take control and essentially attack democracy,” Gandam said.
Premier Danielle Smith on Thursday defended the province’s consultations on Bill 21.
“Sometimes things are so obvious you have to act,” Smith said.
During Thursday’s news conference, Smith referred to an April 25 CTV article in which Brazeau County Coun. Kara Westerlund said the province was slow to respond to the wildfires last summer in her region. Westerlund is also vice-president of RMA. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gandam said officials in Yellowhead County struggled last year to reach the province for assistance in the early stages of wildfires that forced evacuations in the Town of Edson. Local officials asked Alberta Municipalities to raise the issue with the province, he said.
Such problems could be avoided through changes to policy and standard operating guidelines, Gandam said. “If we’re not working as a partner through this and have some policies in place so that it doesn’t differ from one day to the next, we’re going to be no better off.”
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said Thursday that while she hadn’t read the legislation, she didn’t understand how Calgary and Alberta’s emergency response teams’ relationship could be improved.
“There’s an excellent relationship right now that exists between those two bodies and we saw it in action last year during that Northwest Territories evacuation,”
Gondek said.
“If they think they need to change legislation to make that relationship better, I’m struggling to understand how much better it can be. It works really well right now.”
Smith assured larger municipalities that provincial intervention during emergencies in their jurisdiction would be unlikely, saying the province has “no interest in getting into firefighting in areas that are completely under control.”
Mclauchlin said his members are frustrated with the province and said Alberta’s seemingly top-down approach in recent legislation “are really command-and-control big government.”
“We’re already being told now that we can’t talk to the federal government ... so we’re just being put in a smaller and smaller box and being told what to do,” Mclauchlin said.