Two provincial associations, one representing rural municipalities and the other urban municipalities, have outlined issues and concerns they would like candidates in the provincial election campaign to consider and address.
The Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) represents 69 members, including Mountain View County; the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) represents cities and towns, including all the towns in Mountain View County.
RMA president and MVC councillor Al Kemmere says his association has identified key issues it would like to draw attention to.
“We’ve got five key priorities that we are focusing on in our messaging,” he said. “The first one is trying to make sure that future policy decisions at the provincial level get looked at through a rural lens.
“What we mean by that is if they write a policy or a funding mechanism, they look at it with the question, how does this affect the rural and smaller municipalities?”
The second issue is the rural municipalities are looking for a long-term and predictable funding mechanism from the province, he said.
“We only have 10 per cent of the tax base and upwards of 50 of the infrastructure. We have to make sure we have the tools in place to look at good long-term capital and operation management,” he said.
Third, the RMA wants government to know there are challenges to meeting the requirement for new inter-municipal collaborative framework agreements under the updated Municipal Government Act, he said.
“We need them to know that the timelines are a bit of a challenge,” he said. “Many of our members have multiple agreements to write and at the same time you have to do your regular work.”
A fourth priority is funding for roads and bridges, he said.
“Our networks need to be maintained and improved to keep up with needs. They need to be funded appropriately,” he said.
Ensuring support of environmental stewardship in rural Alberta is also a priority, he said.
“We need the government to realize we are stewards of the environment and our members do a great job of managing the environment,” he said.
“We believe in environmental stewardship and we believe that we are doing a decent job on it already.”
Meanwhile, the AUMA has identified issues it believes are of primary importance to its members.
Those issues include cannabis revenue sharing, resources for policing services, and equitable infrastructure funding.
“These topics should not be a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention as AUMA has been advocating on these issues for quite some time,” Barry Morishita, AUMA president, said in a press release.
“Municipalities need equitable funding for infrastructure. The City of Calgary and the City of Edmonton have received a long-term funding agreement linked to provincial revenues; now is the time for the rest of Alberta municipalities to get the same type of deal.
“We also need a commitment for our fair share of cannabis revenue, and we need a new funding model to improve resources for police services.”
