Penhold mayor Dennis Cooper said this year's Mayors' Caucus meeting was the “worst” one he has ever experienced.
“By far this is probably the worst Mayor's Caucus I've ever attended. I felt that the government as a whole wasn't informing us,” said Cooper. “(It was an opportunity for the government to talk to (mayors), talk about their policies and their direction and nothing came out. It was disappointing.”
The Mayors' Caucus is held twice a year and is put on by the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA). The event, which was held March 9 and 10, brings more than 200 mayors and reeves from across the province together to discuss emerging issues and relevant topics.
He noted the empty return on the investment of time and money spent travelling to Edmonton for the two-day event.
“Unfortunately their ability to communicate with us was very disappointing,” he said, adding that several other mayors from Central Alberta left with the same opinion.
Cooper noted that he and other mayors had several questions left unanswered by Premier Rachel Notley and various government ministers and officials.
“With these other people it was almost like they were reading from a script, and when you asked them anything that wasn't in the script they would say, ‘Oh, we can't comment on that,'” said Bowden mayor Robb Stuart. “I was very annoyed that they would not comment and told us that we would have to wait until the budget.”
Both Cooper and Stuart said they were also disappointed with the province's confirmation the school requisition won't be coming out until April 14, the day the NDP government releases its budget.
“The school requisition usually comes out about February 15. When (mayors) asked about it, they didn't know when they might have it done; they were still studying it,” said Cooper. “It took two days but we finally heard that we'll get the school requisition April 14 after the budget has been presented. Since they're not telling us the school requisition now, my ‘spidey sense' says that's going up.”
Other questions included concerns with the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI), which helps support local infrastructure priorities in communities, and the new carbon tax, set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2017.
Cooper said he and other mayors in attendance supported the idea that municipalities should be exempt from the carbon tax.
“(We supported that) municipalities should be exempt from the carbon tax because we are providing services to the people,” said Cooper. “The province doesn't pay carbon tax on itself, so why should we supply service to the people they carbon tax.
“Again, the answer to that was we can't answer that until budget time,” Cooper added.
He noted the ongoing disappointment and unanswered questions throughout the two-day event, and the uncertainty that came with it.
“This is a big challenge that's going to be facing us after April 14. It's a great cloud hanging on the horizon for us right now, and it's definitely going to put a challenge to us when we go ahead and do anything,” said Cooper.
However, Cooper said one positive from the conference was that there was some good discussion amongst the mayors in attendance.
“We looked at different ideas, and talked about sharing services and working together. Overall in talking with the mayors and the other CAOs, we got some good ideas,” said Cooper.
The next Mayors' Caucus is scheduled for this June in Olds.
With files from Johnnie Bachusky
Mayor Dennis Cooper
"By far this is probably the worst Mayors' Caucus I've ever attended. I felt that the government as a whole wasn't informing us
