At the urging of Rocky View County, the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC) decided to take an in-depth look at the Alberta government’s trend towards “forced regionalization.” Their paper, released last month, confirms the worst fears about the governance structure of the Calgary Regional Partnership.
“Municipalities have a justifiable concern when elected councils no longer have the power to govern as granted by the Municipal Government Act,” says AAMDC President Bob Barss.
The Association has defined a model of cooperative regionalization that follows 10 principles:
- Voluntary participation – municipalities can choose to join or resign from the partnership at their discretion.
- Partners define the region – the participating municipalities determine which municipalities will be part of the regional partnership.
- Political autonomy – municipalities remain independent and their ability to make decisions in the best interests of their municipality remains intact.
- Non-hierarchical governance – the regional structure does not create another level of government.
- Voting equity – each municipality has one equal vote.
- Consensus decision-making – major decisions that require a vote are approached on the basis of reaching a consensus.
- User-pay cost sharing – for the most part, the cost of delivering a regional service is borne in proportion to the use of that service.
- Regional transparency – the operation and governance of the regional entity is easily observable and understood.
- Accountability of individual municipalities – when a municipality chooses to become a member of a regional service partnership, the individual municipality is accountable to its community for the value of that service.
- Opting out of programs – when a municipality is a member of a regional service partnership, and the partnership addresses more than one service, each partner has the ability to opt out of one or more of the service delivery programs
Rocky View County Reeve Rolly Ashdown has indicated that the County’s position on the CRP is reinforced by the AAMDC’s paper. The County, along with the MD of Foothills opted out of the CRP, while the Town of Okotoks decided to join the partnership on a trial basis.
“Rural development is different from urban development and it needs to be considered differently,” said Ashdown, in the Rocky View Weekly newspaper. “Our position has never changed, we can’t have city-sized lots in the country, and we can’t give up our autonomy.”
Sources:
http://www.aamdc.com/news-release/500-forced-regionalization
http://www.rockyviewweekly.com/article/20111205/RVW0806/312059997/paper-outlines-opposition-to-forced-regionalization
https://nocalgaryveto.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/forced-regionalization-paper-november-2011-final.pdf
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