Nenshi wants rural compliance

Times Contributor 

 

A modern day ‘Game of Thrones’ is being played out in Southern Alberta, with Wheatland County, and three other municipalities, waiting to see if they will be pawns sacrificed to sections of the Calgary Municipal Plan (CMP). 

In recent weeks, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi has made a bold strategic move, calling to the Municipal Ministry for forced membership of all Calgary region municipalities into the CMP. According to the guidelines, all municipalities in the designated region must be on board to move forward with the plan. 

The plan was developed by the Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP) and deals with land use development, service and utility corridor placement, water supply and transportation infrastructures. 

“We opted out of the Plan, because many parts of it are not in the best interest of our Wheatland County ratepayers, “ said Reeve Glen Koester. 

Koester said the CRP has positive attributes; however, the CMP shows no movement to address rural concerns. Koester said if the province forces agreement, rural landowners will see it as another attack on landowner rights and take exception like they did to the much contested government Bills 19, 24, 36 and 50, which override landowner rights. 

Wheatland Reeve Glenn Koester said that rural and urban governing processes have a different mindset that needs to be acknowledged by the plan. For example, not all rural municipalities have similar land use policy. Some encourage housing development and commercial interests, while others fight to preserve the agricultural base that supplies urban centres with food and diversifies Alberta`s economy. With increased urban sprawl, many maintain the rural cultural and agricultural base in south central Alberta is vanishing. Some of Southern Alberta’s best farmland now lies under roadways and parking lots.

“Municipalities have a justifiable concern when elected councils no longer have the power to govern, as granted by the Municipal Government Act,” said Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC) President Bob Barss. 

Last year, the rural municipalities tried to find solutions for the CRP dispute by asking the AAMDC to develop ideas that may work for both urban and rural municipalities.

The AAMDC reviewed the CMP in 2011, at the request of its members, and forwarded a report to the provincial government with mediation suggestions. They included: 

• allowing voluntary participation in the plan

• the policies developed apply only to the voluntary members jurisdictions

• that each municipal decision-making mechanism remain intact and autonomous

• no new level of government or hierarchy is established

• each municipality has one vote 

• consensus voting

• those who use services, pay for the services

• operation and governance is easily understood and open for all to see

• members are accountable to the partnership

• partners can opt out of one or more of the plan’s projects

Discussions surrounding the CMP have not always been pleasant, with members signing on only to withdraw later. Less than fair pressure weapons have been used, such as suggesting that municipalities who are not part of the plan will suffer inadequate water supply and infrastructure development. Many areas in Southern Alberta are struggling with water issues due to population explosions, urban development and the imposition of water license caps placed on communities by the Alberta Government water programs. The City of Calgary secured water rights from the Bow prior to the Alberta government caps, and uses access to water as an incentive to belong to the partnership.

An interesting political science paper by Robert Young www.uwo.ca, done at Western University of Canada, suggests increased population booms in urban areas require more resources, and declining populations in rural municipalities threaten their sustainability. His paper shows trends in provincial and federal government to grant urban centres more autonomy and control over resources. He suggests if the trend continues, we may be looking at urban/rural populations aligned around a type of city state governance structure throughout Canada. 

Mayor Nenshi is pushing for this type of structure. He has said Calgary has more citizens than five provinces put together, and in an interview with the CBC Calgary eye-opener on Sept. 7, 2012, he said that he supports a Charter style of governance for Calgary. Wikipedia defines a charter city as a city in which the governing system is defined by the city’s own charter document rather than by state, provincial, regional or national laws. 

“We really need that. There’s just so much wasted time and wasted cycles in bickering, in buck passing, between the various orders of government — that should just go away,” Nenshi said in the interview.

Check out Nenshi’s City of Calgary blog. The City/Province Relationship…We can do better. http://blog.calgarymayor.ca, where he indicates a City of Calgary Charter was signed with the provincial government in June 2012, and he references the CRP and CMP.

Last week Wheatland Council received a letter from the Minister of Municipal Affairs stating a mediator would be appointed for the CRP/CMP dispute.