The Province of Alberta amended the Municipal Government Act to mandate collaboration between neighbouring municipalities.
Used correctly, we can deploy the strategies necessary for:
– growing our taxable assessment,
– minimizing conflict between different land uses through good planning, and
– encourage more people to consider calling our region home.
Consider the following from the Municipal Government Act
It is the purpose of all municipalities in Alberta to develop and maintain safe and viable communities.
With rural crime in recent years, it is harder for agricultural producers to thrive and other commercial-industrial companies to do business here.
Paying for the RCMP is now a significant line-item in the budget for all seven municipalities in our region.
Joint lobbying for effective policing and crime prevention is necessary in order to see results.
Property taxes have increased because of this cost and ratepayers deserve policing strategies that work for our communities.
As the administrator for the Village of Arrowwood (since 2014) and the Village of Milo (from 2012 until 2018), I have enjoyed good working relationships with other municipal leaders in the region.
I also worked directly on the Intermunicipal Development Plan (IDP) for the Village of Arrowwood and Vulcan County.
There are common planning principles and joint strategies across all IDPs in Vulcan County.
Through the policy framework set out in these agreements, we have a starting point to work on:
– “Joint Development Initiatives,”
– “Community Growth Initiatives,”
– fair and reasonable cost and revenue sharing for joint services, and
– work collectively in lobbying the province to fund improving the transportation linkages identified by statutory plan as a priority.
Vulcan County has significant liabilities given its massive network of roads and bridges. Especially bridges!
These roads exist as the transportation arteries of our communities.
The maintenance and improvement of this road network remains a cornerstone of economic development and community growth in our region.
Here is the IDP where I was directly involved:
The video below is a great abbreviated overview of emergency response planning and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Local government has the means and the moral authority to follow up on the Redman Report from July and demand a course correction. Our communities, local economy, and ratepayers have suffered avoidable injury as a direct result of incompetent emergency management and fear mongering.
Everything that the province expects of local government they themselves did not do by enacting the wrong state of emergency, not following our emergency response plan, and handing over our response to Alberta Health Services.
It’s time for Alberta municipalities to assert their authority.
Please take the time to read the Redman report:
Promoting the development potential of our communities and the great people who live in Vulcan County should be a priority for the next County Council. We need to grow our taxable assessment while encouraging viable community development.
The following is a low cost and high quality advertising initiative where I was directly involved.
It is my understanding that something similar has been initiated by the current County Council. Without having seen it or being aware of its scope, I do commend them for taking the initiative.
Municipal Government is a local authority subject to the Emergency Management Act.
When the pandemic began in March of 2020, our regional emergency management partnership began working collectively to streamline our websites and produce regular updates.
Another area where I was able to contribute was in working Gillian Williamson from Studio Lumen to produce short public awareness videos that were deemed necessary.
This video reminds me, every time I watch it, that we have great leaders in Vulcan County who care about the welfare of their communities.
Meaningful collaborative governance strategies are possible! Collaboration keeps municipal government small and local.
