After months of hinting at the idea, the Alberta government says it will introduce legislation to prevent the federal government from cutting deals with Alberta’s municipalities without the province’s permission.
On Sunday, Alberta’s minister of seniors, community and social services, Jason Nixon, was definitive on CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live in saying the province will create a policy to prohibit Ottawa from overstepping with municipalities.
In January, the provincial government asked every city and town in Alberta for a list of all municipal-federal agreements that they have in place. At the time, the ministry of municipal affairs said it was possible legislation around this would be on its way.
Fast forward three months.
“Municipal governments are our jurisdiction and the federal government stepping into that area is something we will not accept. You don’t see this taking place in the province of Quebec, as an example, and that’s because Quebec has passed legislation to make sure the feds can’t do that,” said Nixon.
“The premier and I and the municipal affairs minister of the province have been clear that we will be taking steps to make sure we’re in the same circumstance as Quebec shortly, and we will pass legislation to protect the people of our province.”
The federal government has made several announcements related to the 2024 budget ahead of its unveiling on April 16. In response, Alberta’s government accused Ottawa of playing politics and overreaching in their housing plan. Jason Nixon, Alberta’s minister of seniors, community and social services, expressed his concerns to CBC’s Rosemary Barton.
Quebec’s law, titled An Act Respecting the Ministère du conseil executif, prohibits any municipal body from entering into or negotiating an agreement with the federal government or its agencies without express authorization from the Quebec government.
In Calgary, Mayor Jyoti Gondek has concerns. In an emailed statement, she said her job is to work with all orders of government to ensure Calgarians get their fair share of the taxes they pay to fund vital infrastructure in the city.
“There is significant risk to Calgarians and the local business community if provincial legislation creates red tape, delays and uncertainty in receiving much needed funding from the federal government,” said Gondek.
Fine line to walk
Lisa Young, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary, said this government isn’t the first to toy with this idea — Premier Danielle Smith’s predecessor Jason Kenney also did.
She said in many ways this is a tricky legislation to pass.
“It isn’t a simple thing to go ahead and do this if they want municipalities to remain able to perform their functions,” said Young.
At the same time, she said the UCP government is trying to win more Calgary seats in the next provincial election, and introducing this legislation could hurt its case.
“There’s a very fine line to walk here and I think that fine line is the reason that the government hasn’t rushed ahead with this.”
There are still many unanswered questions, and Young said the details of this legislation will be very important.
She said she wonders how significant the constraints will be on municipalities dealing with the federal government, and what the consequences would be if a municipality didn’t get provincial approval.
“It will be interesting to see how they formulate this to understand better exactly the kinds of relationships between the federal government and municipal governments that they’re trying to prohibit,” she said.