New local election rules introduced

The Government of Alberta released two new regulations under the Local Authorities Election Act (LAEA) on October 18 that set new rules for the 2025 municipal election.

The new regulations relate to changes made under the provincial government’s spring passing of Bill 20, the Municipal Statutes Amendment Act. Alberta Municipalities has significant concerns about the new rules, which are outlined in this news release and explained below.

Expense Limits Regulation

This regulation creates campaign expense limits for:

• Candidates in all municipalities
• Municipal political parties in Calgary and Edmonton
• Third-party advertisers.

Key details:

• If elected at-large: Candidates may spend up to $1 per resident, or $20,000, whichever is greater.
• If elected by a ward: Candidates may spend up to $1 per resident based on the average population across all wards in the municipality, or $20,000, whichever is greater.
• Local political parties in Calgary and Edmonton will be allowed to spend up to $1 per resident based on the total of the average population in wards where the party has endorsed candidates.
• The limits described above are specific to the election year. In the year prior to the election year, the limits are 50% lower. In the two years following the election, candidates and local political parties may not incur campaign expenses.
• The limits are specific to campaign expenses as defined in LAEA section 147.1(1). There is no limit on operational expenses, which is any expense that does not meet the definition of a campaign expense.

Local Political Parties & Slates Regulation

This regulation creates rules for the registration, operation and financial administration of local political parties and slates of candidates in the cities of Calgary and Edmonton. This creates the ability for candidates in Calgary and Edmonton to have the name of their party/slate listed on the election ballot.

Key details:

• To register a local political party, the party must have a membership of 1,000 eligible electors and have endorsed candidates in at least one-third of the total council seats.
• The returning officers in Calgary and Edmonton will be responsible to oversee all aspects of registration and reporting by local political parties.
• Local political parties are not permitted for school board trustee elections.

ABmunis' initial analysis

Based on the short time we have had to review the regulations, ABmunis is disappointed that:

• Candidates running under a political party will have a significant financial advantage over independent candidates because political party candidates can use their entire expense limit plus benefit from hundreds of thousands of additional dollars spent by the political party.
• Allowing campaign expenses in the last two years of the council term will increase the focus on campaigning instead of governance of the municipality.

Both go against the recommendations we submitted this summer to the provincial government.  

We appreciate that the Government of Alberta followed our advice to use a per capita based framework to set the campaign expense limit. It is not yet clear how towns and villages will view the campaign expense limit of $20,000 as this is significantly higher than what most candidates spend in small and most mid-sized communities.

The provincial government has committed to release documents within the next two weeks that will help municipalities fully understand the changes. Questions about the new regulations may be sent to Municipal Affairs by ma.advisory [at] gov.ab.ca (email).