Alberta’s municipal politicians would have more time in the chair between elections under new legislation the provincial government is promising to introduce next year.
Municipal affairs minister Doug Griffiths is promising a new bill that would extend the terms of municipal councillors and school board trustees to four years from the current three.
Griffiths made the announcement at the fall convention for the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC), a group that represents rural counties across the province.
He said with fixed election dates coming to the province next year, MLAs will essentially be moving to four-year terms and he sees no reason why municipal leaders shouldn’t hold office for the same time frame.
“When we are moving to four-year terms, it just makes sense that municipal councillors move to four-year terms.”
Griffiths said the new legislation would likely be introduced in the fall session of the legislature next year, in time for the next scheduled municipal election in 2013.
St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse said he would welcome the change for longer terms.
He said between the learning curve for new councillors and the build up to an election every three years there is a time when council is less than fully effective.
“You have about a six-month period where you really shouldn’t be getting into too many things.”
Crouse said the longer terms would mean that inefficient time period would happen less often.
“If you have that inefficient time every three years or every four years, well you can just do the math.”
Griffiths said the province still has to sort out details, including when the elections will be held and how it will be co-ordinated with provincial elections. He said one of the benefits the province hopes to have is to reduce the amount of voter fatigue.
“We can better co-ordinate, either having elections all at the same time so we can get it over with, or to stratify them every two years so we don’t have an election and then another level of government has another election.”
He said that is one of the areas the province still has to consider, because they want a system that will increase voter turnout.
“We want to make sure that people are very excited about the voting opportunities and grow the amount of people in this province who are voting, not make them tired of going out to do it.”
The AAMDC and the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association have both called on the province to make the change for years and other provinces have made similar changes for their municipal elections.
Griffiths said he does not anticipate any serious objections.
“I don’t imagine there will be a tremendous amount of protest from Albertans who care about whether it be three years or four years. What they want are people who are concerned about their communities and their schools.”
He also said many of those who might be concerned will be turned around by the cost savings.
“Over a 12-year period instead of having four elections you are going to have three so it saves money for municipalities and for taxpayers.”
