The province is well into its review of the Municipal Government Act (MGA) and the City of Airdrie has had considerable feedback in the process, according to Leona Esau, City of Airdrie intergovernmental liaison, who provided city council with an update on the review at the Jan. 16 council meeting.
The province began an overhaul of the MGA in 2012. The legislation has not been significantly updated in nearly 20 years.
“The proposed 2017 amendments (to the MGA) were developed out of feedback collected during the Government of Alberta’s summer 2016 MGA consultations in which the City of Airdrie participated in a variety of ways,” Esau said.
According to Esau, the amendments to the MGA planned for 2017 fall into three categories: governance, funding and planning for growth. The amendments are “intended to provide clarity to previous amendments made in 2016 and 2015,” she said.
An online discussion guide – Continuing the Conversation – is an abridged version of the Modernized MGA, introduced in the Alberta Legislature in May 2016 as Bill 21.
Airdrie has provided feedback on the proposed MGA in the past, including sending in approximately 25 recommendations and council and staff have attended community meetings.
One of the areas in which Airdrie had considerable feedback, according to Esau, is in the area of municipal collaboration with school boards.
“The City of Airdrie was instrumental, along with our local school boards, in pushing some of the amendments in this area that the government is now proposing,” she said.
Under these particular amendments, land could be set aside for high schools as part of the planning process.
Input collected from staff and council earlier in January is due to the government by Jan. 31.
“We will be proposing drafting a letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs on…municipal collaboration with school boards, off-site levies and clarity on tax exemptions. We’d like to provide a more detailed response than the Continuing the Conversation online discussion will allow,” Esau said.
Mayor Peter Brown said council had a three-hour discussion about the proposed amendments to the MGA earlier in January.
The proposed MGA will be introduced as a bill for debate in the Provincial Legislature in Spring 2017 and the regulation development will occur in 2017 and 2018, according to Esau.
Grant support
Esau also provided council with information regarding Rocky View County’s (RVC) proposed Regional Emergency Management initiative. Council was asked to give its support to RVC’s application for an Alberta Community Partnership grant for funding to hire a position to oversee development of the initiative across the region.
“No financial commitment is required by the City of Airdrie to advance this initiative and it is considered to be the partner municipality on this grant,” she said. “The focus of this initiative is gaining a better understanding of the emergency preparedness that exists in the RVC region, in particular in smaller communities.
“This initiative, if successful in obtaining funding, will advance the ability for municipalities in RVC to respond in emergency situations with a more co-ordinated, regional response.”
Council unanimously endorsed the request to support RVC’s grant application.
