Municipal intel gathered by AAMDC

By Sharon McLeay Times Contributor

Strength in numbers is something the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC) employs in dealing with governance issues in Alberta.
AAMDC president Al Kemmere, who is also a councillor with Mountain View County, executive director of AAMDC Gerald Rhodes, and former resident and District Two director Paul McLaughlin, reeve of Ponoka County, visited Wheatland County on Feb. 20, to discuss issues with council.
“This is one of the processes, we undertake on a regular basis through AAMDC. We visit a third of our members every year,” said Kemmere. “It’s great to see, great to learn and great to find out what’s important to your community.”
Discussion included cannabis regulations and taxation, ambulance response, RCMP coverage, rural crime, Calgary Regional Partnership, industrial levies and MSI funding, fire reimbursements, renewable energy and compost facility regulation. Kemmere opened his comments with the legalization of cannabis.
“It will have impacts on us, whether it is municipal planning, employee use that we will have to watch, or enforcement,” said Kemmere.
He said the federal government has agreed to retain 25 per cent of the excise tax on the product and deliver 75 per cent to the provinces. Kemmere said AAMDC has advocated that half of the provincial tax should go to municipalities to deal with impacts. He said tax is only on the product and processing, but not on the growing area of the cannabis facilities, which is exempted under agricultural guidelines.
AADMC is recommending a special category for cannabis that would include taxation on growth areas. Kemmere anticipates the need for more enforcement officers in the province. The province is still working on regulations, but guidelines for retailers were released Feb. 16. The legalization for recreational cannabis use has been pushed into August by the federal government.
Wheatland County Deputy Reeve Scott Klassen said studies in the U.S. showed large tax revenues for governments off cannabis production. Washington has a similar population base as Alberta and their annual tax revenues are about $319 million.
“We are talking significant dollars. This is my personal opinion: if the federal government is giving a bigger piece of the pie, that piece of pie is really big,” said Klassen. “It will be interesting to see what pans out… it will be interesting to see where that revenue goes, what is allocated and what goes to us.”

MSI funding and industrial levies
Kemmere said the province would continue MSI funding for two years; however, how it is administered will be contained in the spring provincial budget. He said AAMDC has advocated after the two-year deadline that a consistent funding mechanism be set up so municipalities can ensure their infrastructure plans will be covered. Equalized assessments, population numbers and miles of road are all part of the current formula for funding distribution. They are also working on how the government deals with industrial levies in regard to municipal areas.
“We all need it to advance the infrastructure in our municipalities,” said Kemmere. “It’s become a big part of our development budgets and we are looking to have something that is predictable.”

Electoral boundaries
Kemmere recognized the problem of Wheatland County being split into four electoral districts. “Having four is going to be a challenge for you,” said Kemmere, adding that the new rural ridings now covered by urban electoral districts would make it difficult for MLAs dealing with rural residents and counties.

Fire reimbursements
Kemmere said while farmers were getting some compensation from last year’s wildfires, concerns were raised about reimbursement for non-insurable assets. In some disaster situations, there are more mechanisms for non-insurable asset recovery. To date, the province has not reimbursed farmers for things like cattle injury illness, losses and fencing. Kemmere said it is something that needs to be discussed, as it also influences the repercussions of natural disasters in the future.

Renewable energy
Kemmere commented on the wind and solar energy projects coming into the Wheatland area and said AAMDC is cognizant of issues that arise from these types of installations.
“Renewable energies are things that we are seeing coming down the road in the future,” he noted. “We want to make sure the landowners are not left with a scar on the land. The industry needs to take on some of the burden for that.”
He said what was needed was a better end-of-service land reclamation policy which better protects landowners than the current abandoned well dilemma.

Policing and ambulance response
Many issues have arisen concerning ambulance response and policing throughout municipalities and districts in Alberta.
“It is an ongoing challenge, especially the further you get away from the bigger cities. We hear the same things further south … response times are not adequate and the challenges of dispatching and getting the ambulance guided around our municipalities,” said Kemmere, who added that they will be taking this issue to Alberta’s Minister of Health, Sarah Hoffman, next week, and are looking for documentation as ammunition to deliver their concerns.
Kemmere said discussions on protecting the public include a review of funding and service formulas, improvements to the current justice system and service delivery that may include public participation.
“We have advocated over the years that we should never have discussions that separate service levels from funding and from governance. If there is going to be a funding piece, there also has to be a governance piece to allow those communities to have a voice.”