Mountain View County (MVC) Division 7 councillor Al Kemmere has been elected as a director on the board of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMD&C) for a third time.
The association is made up of the rural municipal councils from across the province, including from MVC and Red Deer County. The board has a president, a vice-president and five directors.
Kemmere was re-elected by acclamation at the association's annual convention in Edmonton November 12 – 15. He represents the Central Zone, which runs from Highway 1 north to the Ponoka area, and from the B.C. border to the Saskatchewan border.
Kemmere says being on the board is good for Mountain View County.
“I think it puts the county on the front end of a lot of the information that goes on and it allows me to represent Central Alberta as well as the area that I know best and that's Mountain View County when it comes to provincial matters,” he said.
There are major issues facing rural Alberta over the next year, he said.
“There are a lot of interesting issues coming up,” he said. “There are always ongoing sustainability issues facing municipalities, whether they are counties or small towns. We need to make sure that the rural interests are kept in mind when policies are written.”
Kemmere is on a new taskforce recently formed by the provincial government, the AAMD&C and the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association to examine the proposed Modernizing Regional Governance Act, Bill 28.
In its original form that legislation would give the provincial cabinet the authority to set up boards to oversee shared needs of municipalities in close proximity to each other, and the board's decisions would have to be approved by Municipal Affairs.
During the AAMD&C convention, Premier Alison Redford said the government will consider input from the taskforce before moving forward with the legislation.
Asked if he believes the AAMD&C has real pull with the provincial government, Kemmere said: “I believe so. When Bill 28 came forward and the municipalities raised concerns about it, the provincial government sat up and I believe listened to what we had to say. Now they are coming forward with some amendments.”
The association plans to lobby the government on a number of other issues over the next months, he said.
“Whether it's bridge funding or resource road funding or just the consistent support of our municipalities from a financial point of view, we will be lobbying on all of those,” he said.
Kemmere noted that the AAMD&C also works with Mountain View County regarding insurance policies.
