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St. Albert leaves newly voluntary Edmonton regional board

 Heron says 'worst decision I've ever seen Municipal Affairs make' forces council’s hand
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St. Albert Place Sept. 12, 2024.

There were long faces and dry tones at St. Albert Place Tuesday as city council voted to end its membership in the Edmonton Metropolitan Regional Board (EMRB).

At their first regular meeting of the year, councillors took turns lamenting the changes made to the EMRB and its Calgary cousin by the Municipal Affairs ministry just weeks ago.

They then voted unanimously to leave. Mayor Cathy Heron said she believes the member municipalities could have overcome the loss of $1 million in annual funding from the province, but that it was making the EMRB voluntary that sounded its death knell.

“We're going back to the Wild, Wild West of planning,” Heron said, quoting former mayor Richard Plain. “This, I will say publicly, is the worst decision I've ever seen Municipal Affairs make and for no reason at all.”

Heron echoed Coun. Natalie Joly’s concern that without the EMRB and its binding regional planning accords, St. Albert will now have to negotiate new agreements with its neighbours. They say this will cost taxpayers millions.

“It’s incredibly frustrating to see the kind of cost that we're going to be incurring by having this regional body dissolve,” Coun. Joly said. “Right now is not the time where we want to be increasing pressures on folks paying their tax bill and essentially making this body voluntary, that's what it's doing.”

The EMRB acts as an umbrella on planning, transportation and economic development for its 13 member municipalities. It replaced the former Capital Region Board in 2017.

Heron said her first mayoral campaign that same year was “all about” regional collaboration.

“This decision is going to cause residents’ taxes to grow up most likely, and it's going to cause a derailment of other things that are planning department is doing,” she said, adding the EMRB was going to tackle a housing plan next.

“The biggest issue in Canada right now is housing, and now we don't have a regional strategy and no way to talk as a region about the homeless issues that affect the entire region because, of course, borders are invisible. So it is with regret that we are doing this today.”

Coun. Mike Killick thanked the mayor for the sweat equity she has invested on the regional front. He said the EMRB wasn’t perfect for everyone, but it was good for most if not all, and was disappointed to see 16 years of collaboration die on the vine.

“Having a free-for-all without some plans to guide us is not the road to success in my opinion,” he said. “It's a shame to see EMRB go by the wayside.”

Coun. Wes Brodhead said after an emergency in-camera meeting of the EMRB board Dec. 12 it became clear it wouldn’t work without mandatory participation.

“So when the idea of regional collaboration is starting to crumble around us, it’s out of necessity we have to pass this motion,” he said. “That doesn't mean I enjoy doing it.”

Coun. Ken MacKay agreed St. Albert’s hand has been forced by the province, and hopes some form of regional collaboration survives.

“We are one of the largest metro regions in Canada and our growth is has been just short of astronomical,” and the loss of regional planning “to me just seems to be extremely short-sighted.”

A Municipal Affairs spokesperson said in an email Wednesday the government appreciates the work of the EMRB "in support of better planning and servicing in the region.

"We recognize that changes to the funding model may have implications for the boards and their members," she wrote in an email. "We will continue to have discussions with the boards and individual municipalities on the future of regional collaboration and local development.

"When the Metropolitan Region Boards were established, they were always intended to be self-funding and that is why funding has always been single year. It is our hope that the regional collaboration the board has achieved will continue, formally or informally. "




Craig Gilbert

About the Author: Craig Gilbert

Craig is a thoroughly ink-stained award-winning writer and photographer originally from Northern Ontario. Please don’t hold that against him.
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