Update: Newly adopted & expired resolutions

Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis) has been hard at work seeking responses to resolutions adopted by members at the 2022 Convention and closing off expired 2019 resolutions.

We are receiving responses from Ministers to 2022 resolutions, which will be reviewed by our standing policy committees in late January and early February. Standing committees assess how well the responses meet the intention of the resolutions and may recommend further action to ABmunis Board using a prioritization framework as a guide.

Adopted resolutions remain active for three years, after which they expire. ABmunis closes off expired resolutions by updating the Resolutions Library and providing the sponsoring municipality an overview of the action we took on the resolution and the outcomes.

Highlights of 2019 resolutions, which expired this year include:

• In response to the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) resolution (which is also an ongoing Alberta Municipalities strategic initiative), the province has recently released EPR Regulations.  Alberta Municipalities is creating a Local Government EPR Working Group to assist member communities with the transition.
• ABmunis worked with the Town of Peace River and the Canada Revenue Agency, and sought alignment with RMA and FCM, to address issues raised in the resolution, Taxation of Intermunicipal Cost Sharing Agreements. We are pleased that, in the case of transfer payments the Town of Peace River received in 2019 through intermunicipal agreements, the CRA found they were for a public purpose and therefore not subject to GST. Additionally, the CRA has revised the policy that directs when transfer payments are subject to GST.
• The resolution on the Mobile Home Sites Tenancy Act called for Alberta Municipalities to urge the Government of Alberta to conduct a review and amend the Mobile Home Sites Tenancies Act to offer Residential Tenancies Disputes Resolution Services (RTDRS) to mobile home site residents, effectively prohibiting the potential practice of “economic eviction” of residents by defining such targeted rental increases as an offence. In Spring 2020, the Government of Alberta passed Bill 3, Mobile Home Sites Tenancies Amendment Act. This Bill gave mobile home site tenants and landlords access to the province’s dispute resolution service for eviction-related matters effective June 1, 2020. The Minister of Service Alberta also indicated that the RTDRS would increase its staff in response to increasing demand for the service.

Visit ABmunis’ Resolutions Library for more information on the status of resolutions.