Ministerial Mandate Letters Released
All provincial Cabinet Ministers have now received their mandate letters from Premier Smith. Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver received his mandate letter on August 4th, which includes several deliverables including:
• Continuing to improve the delivery of stable, predictable funding through the Local Government Fiscal Framework.
• Working with municipalities and local businesses to benchmark, measure and reduce the time it takes to approve permits to create a more attractive business investment environment.
• Developing appropriate incentives and benchmarks to significantly reduce municipal approval times for housing and business park developments.
• Protecting the province’s constitutional right to oversee the governance of Alberta’s municipalities without federal interference.
• Continuing to monitor the Calgary and Edmonton Metropolitan Region Boards to ensure they are serving the needs of their urban and rural residents effectively and fairly without unnecessarily interfering with the autonomy of small and midsized municipalities.
• Reviewing the Local Authorities Election Act, and making recommendations for any necessary amendments to strengthen public trust in and the integrity of our municipal election laws.
• Reviewing the feasibility of amending the Education Property Tax to assist municipalities with retaining more funding for local priorities.
• Finding ways our government can reduce burdensome and unnecessary red tape and barriers that are hurting their members’ ability to grow the economy and improve quality of life for the Albertans they serve.
Alberta Municipalities looks forward to constructively engaging with the Minister as he works to deliver on these are other items on importance to our members.
Legislative Calendar:
The First Session of the 31st Legislature is scheduled to commence with a Speech From the Throne on October 30.
