No Council Meeting This Week

Changes to the Municipal Government Act

Most of you will remember that LSARA has had the occasion to put forward a petition and a few other communications to the Municipal Government. The Act itself is law. It is how Municipalities must operate. It governs everything from how an election runs in a County, to identifying the duties of a Councillor or Elected Official. It also regulates how and when Council Meetings are to be advertised.

The document itself is a book that is over 500 pages. The statutes it contains were very difficult in their application sometimes. In fact, many of them were so open to interpretation, that it allowed for some Counties to run how they chose to run rather than by what governed them.

So now we have a new document that hasn’t been updated for over 20 years. The last time some major changes were implemented was 1995. The thought or presentation from the Alberta Government elude to that It should change the very face of how our local municipalities govern and provide services to the Ratepayers. 

What it should not do is allow for more of the same interpretation of the laws. There has been some prelude to this publication in that the Government of Alberta has indicated that it will be transparent, holds councils accountable, is supposed to create the “framework for greater regional collaboration” . It has also been lauded to improve the consistency of the revenue component of municipalities.

Shaye Anderson, the Minister of Municipal Affairs was recently interviewed regarding the changes to the MGA and he stated, “This updated piece of Legislation provides municipalities the tools and resources they need to build strong communities and make lives better for Albertans.” How, he didn’t explain so we are left to wonder. The changes that have taken place were not done in one sitting but rather with consultation and three bills that have passed in the Legislature . This has been ongoing since 2015.

As we see it, some of the changes will do nothing for us as Ratepayers, but some have the ability to make huge differences if applied properly.

1. Requiring training to be offered to Municipal Councillors.

How big is this for us in our county to have councillors that understand their role and will actively govern how the CAO is managing the affairs of the County?

2. The Provincial Ombudsman providing oversight of Municipalities.

The Ratepayers should never be in a situation wherein we request a vote on a Borrowing Bylaw where we are forced to petition our Council and go further to Municipal Affairs. We should have the ability to access the ombudsman and reach a resolution that is fair and equitable to everyone.

3. Improved Regional Planning with growth management boards and inter-municipal collaboration frameworks –

Wow… you mean that all the other Counties around us may actually have some interaction with us? Rather than being left out in some of the Economic Development ideas for the Region, we may actually become the beneficiary of some collaboration!

Some very good collaboration and hopefully some very positive changes that will allow the County of Lac Ste Anne to gain a place in the region as somewhere that business wants to come to and that people want to build and live here.

Some of the changes take effect immediately, but others not until April of 2018. The changes are largely due to consultation with several boards namely the AUMA ( Alberta Urban Municipalities Association) and the AAMDC (Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties). These organizations provide informational conventions for municipality officials to attend. There is a cost to these conventions and it is not cheap. On top of admission fees there is the cost to provide accommodations and meals. We can only hope that this cost is worth it and the information provided benefits our municipality.

Some LSAC Councillors recently attended the AAMDC Fall 2017 Convention November 14-17 2017 and are attending the AUMA Convention & Trade Show Nov 22-24 which is this week so that is the reason why there is no Council Meeting this Thursday. 

In case you were planning on attending the Council meeting now you know why there is not one.
Why this information is not on the LSAC Web Site is beyond us. 

We would like to know how this LSAC Web Site is maintained and what it costs us. Important current information such as "Council Meetings" should be a priority of the site!

We have heard the Council Meetings in December will also be changed from their regular sessions. That would be nice to know and to have posted on the "Web Site" also.  We can only hope that the future council meetings are informative and not a waste a time for the public to attend as they should be.  Not like the meetings of the past that did not provide details and lasted no more than an hour.

We are asking you, our members who plan on attending council meetings for whatever reasons, to report back your findings to LSARA.  We would like to know if anything has changed with this new council.