The provincial government is looking to municipal governments, like Cochrane’s town council, to provide feedback on what they would like to see changed in the Municipal Government Act (MGA), which is currently being reviewed.
The Alberta Government has identified approximately 800 issues with the MGA and is proposing an ambitious timeline for completion of the review, with the fall of 2015 being their target finishing date. The purpose of the effort is to coordinate policies and modernize the MGA to help governments at the municipal level have the right tools to perform their duties.
Cochrane’s CAO Julian deCocq informed council members on Feb. 25 that they should start thinking about what aspects of the MGA they would like to see changed by the province, as the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) plans to hold a zone meeting to address the MGA at the Cochrane RancheHouse March 27.
Councillor Ross Watson plans on addressing Cochrane’s unique challenges when it comes to development.
“The Town of Cochrane has tried to stop development on slopes over 15 per cent,” Watson said. “The current MGA prevents us from enforcing this.”
Watson indicated that historically, developments on slopes of greater than 15 per cent can suffer from stability problems.
“We know the stability of these areas change over time,” said Watson, “and Cochrane homeowners face problems long after the developers have gone. Towns need more authority to set their own development standards.”
Watson said the current MGA allows for development on slopes of 15 per cent or greater as long as the developer receives a favourable engineering report.
Councillor Ivan Brooker hopes funding issues will be laid out more clearly in the new MGA.
“A consistent source of funding from the province to us at a municipal level would be my highest priority,” Brooker said, adding that having to wonder and hope that anticipated dollars will be available year after year can cause planning issues for municipal councils.
The province has created an MGA advisory committee to help guide the engagement strategy for the review of the act, which will take place from now until April 2014.
The public, municipalities, industry and the AUMA will all be asked to provide feedback during the process.
For the AUMA, a focus will be placed on governance, revenue authorities and roles and responsibilities.
“This is an opportunity to talk about changes that we’d like to see,” said deCocq, adding that the new MGA needs to be harmonized with other legislation to prevent municipalities from encountering roadblocks when decisions need to be made. “It’s important to be aware that this is going on.”
Mayor Truper McBride said the review could result in ‘sweeping changes to the way municipalities operate.’
A mayors’ caucus will be held in Canmore in June, providing an additional opportunity for mayors to give their input into the MGA review.
The current MGA was established in 1998 and has seen several amendments since.
