The provincial government is looking for the public to weigh in on how often their municipal politicians should be elected, when those elections should take place and how they should be financed.
In a survey posted online this week, the government is asking the public about extending municipal politicians' terms to four years from the current three and moving elections from the fall to spring.
The government hasn't made any final decisions, said Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths, but four-year terms are likely on their way unless there is a strong public outcry.
"Four years seems to be the right balance between ensuring sure there is accountability to the public with regular general elections and still saving costs and making sure there is time for the elected officials to get on with work," Griffiths said.
Municipal councillors and others have made strong cases for both fall and spring elections, said Griffiths, but the province is just asking the question.
"The province is agnostic on whether you are going to have it in the fall or the spring. We are not driving any agenda there," he said.
Local mayors are in favour of the four-year terms, but are split on the spring or fall for elections.
Most municipal councils finalize their budget right after fall elections, which can be very difficult for new councillors, said Morinville Mayor Lloyd Bertschi.
"By having [elections] in the spring you are not thrown right into the deep end of a budget that a lot of work has been done to already," he said.
Moving to spring elections could mean extending the term of current councillors, which doesn't sit well with St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse.
"Everybody in the province ran on a certain understanding and that was for this to be a three-year term. Voters voted, candidates ran – I think the change should become effective in 2013," he said.
Crouse said a spring election would also pose weather problems.
"I don't think that you want a May election, because people want to be outside in Alberta," he said.
Finance changes
The survey also asks a lot of questions around how election campaigns are financed. Currently, councillors have to disclose donations of more than $100 and are limited to donations of no more than $5,000.
The feedback he's heard from people so far has been scattered, Griffiths said, with some calling for higher donations limits, some calling for lower and many other changes being proposed.
"There are a lot of very strong opinions on campaign finance rules, but there is not a lot of consensus and I am not sure we are going to derive a consensus out of this consultation," he said.
Any proposed changes to the law would be made in the fall, Griffiths said, but, especially on campaign finance, the province is open to more conversation before any changes are made.
"What I am hoping is we can identify what some of the strike points are, what some of the most controversial issues are, where we could do more consultation and see if there is a few things that do drive a general consensus," he said.
Bertschi and Crouse are both concerned about third party groups who operate in political campaigns.
During the last St. Albert municipal election, the St. Albert Taxpayers Association as well as an anonymous group calling itself Wise Choices bought ads in local papers.
"They wind up supporting these candidates and they don't have to disclose how much money they have spent," said Bertschi.
Bertschi said the groups have specific issues that often align with candidate platforms. Crouse said the nebulous nature of these groups could mean they could get out of control.
"I could actually set up a third-party company to do all my advertising and bypass all the rules," he said.
Griffiths said he doesn't know how it will work, but agrees the third party groups will require some study.
"If we have limits on the candidates and the parties, how can you allow third parties to go around potentially unlimited?" he wondered.
The survey is available at www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca until July 31.
