Municipal Policy Primer: Alberta’s opposition

L->R: Sherman, Mason, Smith, Taylor

Hello all, it is September and I haven’t posted in a while. Today’s topic is going to be municipal policy in advance of a possible election either this fall or in the spring. Whenever it is, it’ll depend on the will of whoever wins the leadership of the natural governing party of Alberta this month.

This post follows the launch of citiesmatter.ca by the Mayor’s Office of the City of Calgary. Since they covered responses of PC leadership candidates, I will only focus on the policies of the major opposition parties. If you really give a crap what the natural governing party has to say, go to the other site.

For the purposes of this discussion, I am going to lumping in affordable housing policies with general municipal policies.

Alberta Liberal 

Let’s start off with the top of the pile of also-rans. The Liberals have been around in Alberta since 1905, and were the ruling party from then until 1921, when they were ousted from power by the United Farmers of Alberta. Having just held their own convention, Raj Sherman has attained leadership of the party. Dr. Sherman is a medical doctor with only a recent history in politics, having been elected in Edmonton-Meadowlark in 2008 as a Progressive Conservative. He was kicked out of his party’s caucus in 2010 after criticizing the government on wait times.

Policies

- Honour the 10-year Municipal Sustainability Initiative for the life of the agreement. The cumulative value of that agreement to Alberta’s cities, towns, counties and municipal districts will not fall below $11.3 billion.

- Amend the Alberta Act to constitutionalize municipalities and school boards, clarifying and securing their jurisdiction over areas of local responsibility.

- Enact a Big Cities Charter to give Calgary and Edmonton clearly spelled-out powers with respect to local matters and the authority to act independently within those areas of responsibility.

- Identify high-growth areas in Alberta and establish regional planning mechanisms within those areas to develop and implement growth plans, to focus and guide future development.

- Implement the Alberta Liberal Affordable Housing Strategy, including a temporary 10 per cent cap on rent increases, a limit of one rent increase per year, and a moratorium on condominium conversions, except where developers agree to replace any lost rental units with new rental properties.

- Through the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, co-ordinate and assist in implementing municipal plans to end homelessness by creating the office of Director of Housing and Human Services.

- Introduce ‘Permanent Supportive Housing,’ which provides the chronically homeless with stable housing options combined with support and clinical services.

- Involve other ministries?Education, Health, Justice, Solicitor General, Children’s Services and Municipal Affairs and Housing?in a joint effort to prevent atrisk children from becoming homeless.

- Allow for the creation of more secondary suites in homes, and offer grants of up to $5,000 to homeowners to create new suites.

- Amend the Municipal Government Act to allow cities and towns the power to include minimum percentages of affordable housing in any new developments or redevelopments.

- Swap or donate land to local land trusts to devote in perpetuity to affordable housing; implement tax breaks to encourage private landowners to contribute their property to affordable housing projects.

- Encourage local governments to freeze, reduce or eliminate property taxes on affordable rental units by providing corresponding grants to municipalities to make up for the lost revenue.

- Match funding with the federal government’s Affordable Housing Trust and the Off-Reserve Aboriginal Housing Trust.

- Help up to 5,000 families achieve home ownership by extending financial assistance to moderate income earners who wish to buy their own homes, partnering with the private sector and community housing agencies to accomplish this goal.

- Connect allowances and supplements to the renter, not the unit.

- Provide low- or no-interest loans to qualifying low-income earners to cover the cost of the security deposit and one-month’s rent.

- Expand the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service, a program which is designed to reduce costs, wait times and the burden on the courts to resolve landlord-tenant disputes.

Alberta NDP

The Alberta NDP was originally founded in 1932 as a division of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. The party has never formed government in Alberta, only briefly becoming the official opposition in 1982 with a mere two seats. Brian Mason became party leader in 2004. Mason first became involved in politics as a polisci student in the late seventies, later working as a bus driver for Edmonton Transit and then serving as a city councilor for eleven years. He was first elected as an MLA in a by-election in Edmonton Highlands in 2000.

Policies

- Immediately implement temporary rent guidelines, limiting rent increases to inflation plus 2%. Landlords could apply for larger increases to cover major repairs and renovations.

- Implement a program to support first time homebuyers, as recommended by the housing task force.

- Close the loopholes that allow the conversion of apartments to condominiums, putting renters out of their homes.

Wildrose Party

The Wildrose Party is a fairly new party, formed in 2007. It merged with the Alberta Alliance, briefly changing its name before to Wildrose Alliance before reverting back. The current leader, Danielle Smith, was elected as leader of the party of the party in 2009.  Danielle Smith was on the CBE Board of Trustees from 1998 to 1999, worked with the Alberta Property Rights Initiative and the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute, was a columnist and editorial board member with the Calgary Herald, hosted talk radio programs with Global Sunday, and was the provincial director of the Canadian Federal of Independent Business in 2006. She also held a one-yer internship with the right-wing Fraser Institute. Mrs. Smith is not an elected MLA.

Policies

- Provide municipalities with a legislated long-term funding formula tied to the growth of provincial tax revenues and royalties, rather than continue with the current patchwork of wasteful and bureaucratic municipal granting and funding programs. Local communities, not the provincial bureaucracy, are in the best position to determine where local infrastructure dollars should be spent.

- Conduct a thorough assessment to determine Alberta’s actual infrastructure deficit and prioritize new projects and maintenance to address these needs. The resulting list of priority infrastructure projects and maintenance must be publicly disclosed and any adjustments with accompanying rationale immediately reported. The practice of building schools, medical facilities, and other infrastructure projects based on politics and favouritism must end.

- Restrain provincial per capita infrastructure spending to a level consistent  with the Canadian average. Currently, Alberta spends about twice the  national average on infrastructure. This overspending drives up inflation, increases business costs and contributes to massive labour shortages during periods of economic growth.

- In consultation and cooperation with municipalities, conduct a review of  the entire property taxation regime to ensure business competitiveness as  well as fairness to all Alberta ratepayers – especially those individuals on modest and fixed incomes (i.e. seniors).

 - Pass an Alberta Property Rights Preservation Act that will entrench property rights protection in law. Existing legislation provides for compensation only when title is formally taken by expropriation, but not for property partially taken or devalued through government regulation. This Act will address this omission and ensure that all landowners have recourse to the courts to protect their rights.

- Review all existing legislation dealing with property rights as related to government expropriation and regulation to ensure that when needed public projects or government initiatives, such as highway construction or land-use alteration, are found absolutely necessary, any negative impacts on affected property owners will be fully compensated for. This should include a thorough examination of what government actions and regulations should result in compensation, as well as what amount of compensation is fair.

- Repeal Bills 19, 24, and 36.  Replace the current “Land Use Framework” with one that better protects the rights of landowners and respects the role of locally elected and accountable municipal councils.

- Enshrine basic property rights in the current Alberta Bill of Rights and spearhead a national initiative to add property rights protection to Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The proposed Charter amendment would enshrine the principle that everyone has the right to life, liberty, security of the person, and enjoyment of property, and that no private property shall be taken for public use, without full, fair and timely compensation.

Alberta Party

The Alberta Party is an old/new kid on the block, depending on how you view it. It started as a right-wing political association in the early 80′s, and sat largely dormant through the 90′s. After an failed attempt to merge with the Alberta Alliance in 2004, and the rise of the Wildrose three years later, the right-wing members of the party left the party. The remaining centre-left of the party took on members of the former Alberta Greens following the wake of that party in 2008, as well as a number of progressives, in 2010 merging with Renew Alberta. The newly reformed Alberta Party held its first leadership convention in 2011, with Glenn Taylor winning the post. Mr. Taylor ran as a candidate for the Alberta NDP in West Yellowhead in the 1997 provincial election, and was elected as a councilor for the Town of Hinton in 2001. He has been the Mayor of Hinton since 2004.

Policies

- As equal partners with the provincial government, local government and their representative organizations, including the AUMA (Alberta Urban Municipalities Association) and the AAMDC (Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties), will be consulted in all matters directly impacting them. Any amendments or changes to legislation, regulations or procedures relating to municipal government will only proceed once we have enabled the active participation of those affected by the change through meaningful input in a review process.

- An Alberta Party government, in concert with local government, will revise the municipal funding structure. We need to review and improve the current property assessment system in Alberta to ensure that it reflects the true value of property in today’s market. We will also review any financial inequities between urban and rural municipalities including the shared benefits of linear taxation.

- The Alberta Party will ensure municipalities have full access to their property tax base, including the education tax. The Alberta Party will ensure this change will not impact education funding in the province. Although providing municipalities with exclusive access to property taxes is an important first step forward, the Alberta Party also recognizes that sole reliance on property tax may be flawed and we would explore longer-term solutions of stable revenue creation that move beyond this paradigm.

- An Alberta Party government will strike a Premier’s Council on Local Government to review the status of local government and municipal structures in the province. The Council will be comprised of municipally elected leaders and experts in the held and will amend the Municipal Government Act to include a Local Government Charter. This Charter will take a new view of  municipalities as entities capable of autonomous and responsible action – while recognizing that one size does not fit all. The Council will also make recommendations to the government on municipal funding mechanisms, autonomy and structure.

- An Alberta Party government will make it easier for all Albertans to participate in the governance of their communities. We will support initiatives that lead to increased youth and female participation in local government and pilot internet-based voting during municipal elections. An Alberta Party government will also work with municipalities to implement campaign finance reforms, in order to make spending and contributions more equitable to other levels of government, and reduce the barriers to running for public once at the local level.

- An Alberta Party Government will extend the term of elected municipal officials to four year terms, moving them more in line with our provincial elected representatives. This will allow municipalities to more effectively plan for and implement initiatives that meet the needs of their citizens.

– An Alberta Party government will also establish the Innovation in Municipal Government Program, which will provide financial assistance and/or technical support for municipalities undertaking citizen engagement and participation projects. The program will support pilot projects that improve local government’s ability to serve and connect with citizens.

Analysis

The Liberals have by far the beefiest policies, which cover the broadest range of issues. They are moderately pro-regional planning, and would seem to create a system with multiple tiers, with (1) municipalities being treated as an actual level of government rather than just incorporated areas, (2) special charter status for Calgary and Edmonton, (3) new or refurbished regional planning structures for fast-growth areas. One thing I will note is that the Alberta Act, as far as I am aware, is a federal statute under the Constitution Act and therefore would have to be amended in the House of Commons, making any such action on that front unlikely without being part of a nationwide effort.

The NDP policies are very narrowly focused on housing, in line with their social gospel roots. Nothing more to see here folks. It’s rather unfortunate because I think by focusing on housing, like their federal counterparts, they are missing a large chunk of municipal issues that have a social justice dimension, especially with regards to public transit.

Wildrose’s policies are interesting. They are very anti-regional planning, as the focus would be on local councils deciding where spending goes. I can sympathize with the arguments about property not being compensated for or being devalued without fair compensation, but I also fear that whatever rules the party would implement would paralyze and/or delay urban infrastructure projects (and clog the courts). Additionally, property rights is a thorny debate with quite a bit of history.

The Alberta Party here, as before and elsewhere, can be accused of being overly similar to the Liberals.  For example, the Alberta Party, like the Liberals, would support a big city charter. One particular difference can perhaps be found in the policy to direct the entire education portion of the property tax to municipalities for their use, whereas prior Liberal policy releases focused on reducing or eliminating said tax to try increase tax room for municipalities. The other big point (for me) was the policy to increase the term length for councils from 3 to 4 years, which could help municipal politicians get more work done before they start posturing for the next election.

NOTE: All the listed policies (in colour) can be found online at the websites of each of the parties. You can visit their sites for more information.

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