EDMONTON, Alta. – Alberta municipalities must be less territorial if they are going to survive in the new financially tighter world, said the president of the province’s municipal organization.
Roelof Heinen pointed to some small towns that own their own road grader to maintain a kilometre of gravel road instead of using graders available from the surrounding municipality.
“Both urban and rural municipalities have been guilty of turf protection,” said Heinen.
As reeve of the County of Lethbridge, Heinen said he and council have started to work with the city of Lethbridge and some smaller surrounding towns to see how they can share the cost of fire, ambulance and emergency services.
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“There are obvious duplication of services,” said Heinen, of Picture Butte.
“The climate is there and people are willing to sit and to discuss issues with an open mind.”
In all, 456 councilors from 66 municipal districts and counties across Alberta gathered in Edmonton last week for the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties convention.
Money running out
Alberta minister of municipal affairs Tom Thurber told the councillors, representing rural Alberta, that the province will no longer bail out financially unstable municipalities, citing about a dozen that are near their debt limit.
“We can no longer afford to borrow money to prop up inviable towns, villages or municipalities,” he said. “We have to look at better ways of getting along.”
Thurber said it is no longer acceptable for municipalities to raise property taxes as a solution for money woes.
“There are ways we can trim administration, join services and make things work better,” said Thurber.
Heinen said fiscal belt tightening is a golden opportunity for neighboring councils to share and work together.
