EDMONTON – Alberta’s rural municipalities want the government to dust off its myriad reports about what’s ailing rural Alberta and create a rural development authority that will implement the ideas.
“The issue has been studied to death,” said John Kolk. The councillor from the County of Lethbridge helped push through a resolution at the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties’ recent annual convention that encourages the provincial government to implement the recommendations in the latest government report Rural Alberta: Land of Opportunity.
“There needs to be an accountable body in place to implement the recommendations,” Kolk said.
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Without an authority with a budget, mandate and accountability, the recommendations made in the latest report will be ignored, he said.
When the report was released in March, the two MLAs on the government steering committee recommended all government departments adopt its recommendations about rural Alberta and use it as a framework for change in their upcoming business plans.
The MLAs were especially concerned about government funding policies based on population. With only 19 percent of the province’s population, it is difficult for rural areas to maintain adequate services when government funding is based on population.
“The next two years are critical for rural Alberta,” said MLA Doug Griffith when he released the report.
But nine months have passed since the report was released and rural councillors worry its recommendations will go nowhere.
Kolk said the report and a rural development authority won’t stop the globalization trend in agriculture, but it will assure rural Albertans that they have a say in the future.
Don Whittaker, reeve of the County of Vermilion River who also supported the motion, said rural areas are struggling to keep services in rural Alberta and a development authority would ensure each government department’s blueprint for the future takes into account how it affects rural Alberta.
“This gives the development authority the authority to ensure the programs are delivered in rural Alberta,” said Whittaker, who estimated more than $40 million in resource revenue leaves his municipality every year, but the transportation and road rebuilding grant is only $640,000.
“By identifying some of the recommendations, they’ll be able to refocus some of those dollars back in rural Alberta,” he said. “A lot of wealth created by the Alberta Advantage … has come from rural Alberta.”
Whittaker said the resolution was one of the most important of the convention. Many of them asked the provincial government for increased funding for libraries, roads, utility bills in recreation facilities, insurance and the effects of rural and gas activity.
A rural development authority would ensure all issues affecting the countryside are at least looked at, he said.
“Considering the wealth the province has, we need to see reinvestment in rural Alberta,” Whittaker said.
