Resolutions put forward by Red Deer and Mountain View counties were passed at the 2014 Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and counties (AAMDC) annual meeting in Edmonton last week.
The Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties is an independent association comprising Alberta's 69 counties and municipal districts. It advocates with the provincial government on behalf of rural Alberta.
Resolutions are put forward by association members, and when accepted, they call on the provincial government to take certain actions outlined in the resolutions.
Newly elected association president Al Kemmere says he is pleased with the resolutions passed and hopes the provincial government will consider them in future deliberations.
“This is part of our advocacy approach to the government on various issues,” said Kemmere, a Mountain View County councillor. “For example, we will now take all the environment resolutions to the minster of environment. Typically resolutions last for three years.”
Mountain View County put forward two resolutions for this year's convention, which ran from November 18 - 20.
One calls on Alberta Health Services (AHS) to “provide compensation to municipalities when fire departments are dispatched to respond to emergency calls by the emergency management system 911 dispatcher” and that an “independent review of Alberta 911 procedures takes place to ensure the 911 system is operating efficiently between police, fire, and emergency medical services.”
In the background note accompanying the resolution, the county said, in part, that, “fire-based first responders are commonly the first to arrive at accident scenes in rural Alberta. Remote rural fire departments are burning out volunteers by responding to 911 emergency medical calls. As a result of lengthy travel times, fire departments are frequently dispatched by 911 to respond to Alberta Health Services calls.”
The second resolution by Mountain View County calls on AHS to provide an “emergency medical services system that ensures appropriate coverage and response in all areas of the province” and that AHS “considers non-ambulance transportation for clinically stable patients and considers reserving the use of ground ambulances for emergency events.”
Red Deer County and the County of Newell put forward a resolution regarding the control and enforcement of the spread of aquatic invasive species, specifically quagga and zebra mussels.
The resolution calls on the province to “enact or amend legislation and/or regulations to include prohibited species and encompass zero tolerance, mandatory inspections and the necessary enforcement authority for aquatic invasive species to ensure the species do not invade Alberta.”
The resolution also calls for the province to “improve monitoring through the establishment, funding and staffing of mussel inspection stations at strategic entrances into Alberta.”
Another approved resolution calls on the province to reinstate funding for resource roads and local bridge programs in rural municipalities.
The programs were zero funded in the 2013 and 2014 provincial budgets. The resource program received $31 million and the bridge program received $26 million in 2012.
“This has had a significant impact on rural infrastructure and transportation networks,” the resolution reads. “Agricultural producers and natural resource industries require roads and bridges that can accommodate the volume of heavy traffic that these industries generate. Many rural municipalities have limited funding. Maintenance and rebuilding of both roads and bridges is now problematic because of zero funding of these programs.”
