Alberta Municipalities ‘caught off guard’ by details of Bill 20

Welcome back, everyone. We continue to follow reaction today when it comes to the UC PS Bill 20. The proposed legislation aims to give the province broad authority to dismiss local elected officials and overturn municipal bylaws. Now the organization which represents Alberta’s cities, towns and villages, just the proposed changes would create an atmosphere of fear. The President of Alberta Municipalities, Telegandam, joins us with more. Tyler, good afternoon. How are you? Good afternoon. I’m well. How are you? Good, good. Thanks for your time today. So your organization has put forward some very strong wording out expressing concern about the legislation. I want to ask were you caught off guard by just the areas that it covers? I guess we knew political parties at the local level was a a big discussion. Some of the other pieces of the legislation certainly caught us off, caught us off guard. It definitely feels like a power, power grab, and we’ll continue to make sure that the provincial government hears our concerns. And we’re getting a ton of support from other municipalities, other elected officials, as well as residents and business owners across the province who don’t like the legislation either. One of the arguments we heard from the premier, you know, is that some municipalities are overstepping their boundaries, their authorities, introducing bylaws that might not be within the scope of local councils. And that legislation, you know, attempts to address that. What’s your take on that? I’d like to see some examples of that. Minister McIver gave me the one example where Edmonton implemented the Mask bylaw, to which I replied the province gave the masking bylaw to municipalities to begin with. So if there was an issue with that moving forward, that could have been a conversation. Aside from that, municipalities getting in or stepping into the provincial mandate or jurisdiction are in areas where the province isn’t stepping up and doing what they need to be doing to support these municipalities. Mental health, addictions, homelessness. We’ve got municipalities that are having to incentivize doctors to get them into their communities. So I think we’ve got a lot more to worry about than whether or not municipalities are creating bylaws that step on the toes of the province. Tyler, I want to get your thoughts on this. The premier says that the changes are to also ensure that municipalities don’t enact policies that are out of step with provincial priorities. What’s your take on that suggestion, that argument there again, show me where we’re implementing policies that overstep our jurisdiction or that might be in contravention of what the province is looking to do. Again, we can have that conversation with the province, just like we’ve been asking for, for that consultation while they look to bring legislation like this in it. Again, it feels like a power grab and it’s it’s unwelcomed at the local level. Is there any concern though that, you know, you know, the legislation might come off as you have to be in line with our priorities at the provincial government level and there can be no deviation from that? Yeah, absolutely. There’s that. And then there’s the worry that members of council won’t be able to represent their communities the way that they were elected to with fear that cabinet will remove them from office because they’re in opposition of what the provincial government wants or sees or thinks. We’ve heard about the possibility of a legal challenge from Alberta municipalities. But Tyler, I want to get your thoughts. What is the possibility of that actually achieving any success? Because I mean, we all know that municipalities, they are subordinate to the province under the rules that are in place right now. So you know, is there really a legal fight that can be had here? Yeah, absolutely. And I think that we’ll represent the 265 municipalities that are Alberta Municipalities members. And if it comes down to it and one of the options here is a legal battle on this, then that’s the option that we’re going to take. Nothing’s off the table right now in terms of making sure that our members are looked after. You know, obviously you’ve voiced the opposition and that was kind of leading up to what we heard from Alberta Municipalities yesterday. You know, has there been an olive branch extended from the government, You know, do you feel that there could be consultation before this legislation becomes a reality? I had a chance to speak with Minister Macabre yesterday. We are differing on the the sense of how dire Bill 20 is. So I’m hoping that moving forward, we’re going to have the opportunity to meet with the province and undergo some of that consultation that maybe could have happened before this was released and we could have gotten through some of this without all of the pushback. It’s a very interesting time. Tyler, thank you so much. I know it’s quite busy. Your insight is greatly appreciated. Appreciate it. Thanks, Dinesh.