St. Albert could be the latest and largest municipality to signal its intent to leave regional economic development agency Edmonton Global (EG).
The city would have to give EG two years’ notice and pay its annual dues of about $245,000 in the interim.
Coun. Natalie Joly read in a notice of motion at the end of the Oct. 1 regular meeting of council in order to get the debate over with in time for the incoming council, who will be elected next October, to make up their own minds, she said Thursday.
Her motion, if adopted by council after debate at their Nov. 5 meeting, would also compel city administrators to present the decision for reconsideration in the first or second quarter of 2026.
“I want to give the 2025-2029 Council a chance to decide whether our involvement continues to best meet our needs,” Joly wrote in an email. “I'm concerned about expected rising costs due to municipalities withdrawing their participation and passing this motion now would allow the next council to be more nimble in their decision to stay or leave.”
Edmonton Global is a foreign direct investment (FDI) and international business development agency, a non-profit company funded by its 14 member municipalities that exists to “radically transform” and grow the region’s economy. It was created by what’s called the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board and incorporated in 2017 with 15 members.
Bon Accord was the first to leave. Morinville gave withdrawal notice in November 2020, then councillors narrowly voted to stay on board in Sept. 2022. Parkland County first voted to leave in December 2019 but likewise reversed their decision.
Strathcona County, Sturgeon County, Fort Saskatchewan, Devon, and Parkland County councils each unanimously voted to withdraw in 2023.
A common concern is EG’s funding model, which is based on census data and the annual Municipal Affairs Equalized Assessment Report, according to spokesperson Sherri Bouslama, who said EG does not disclose the dues its members pay.
In 2023 provided $5 million from members. Some argue the fees should be tied to results, not population.
As the province's sixth-largest city, St. Albert is safely the most populous member of EG outside Edmonton.
Including funding from the provincial and federal governments that ballooned from $788,000 in 2022 to $2.8 million in 2023, total revenues for EG for that year were just shy of $8.5 million, and expenses were about $8.1 million.
That calculus helped swing the balance sheet from $746,000 in the red in 2022 to a $349,000 operating surplus in 2023.
This is far from the first time splitting with EG has come up in the Botanical Arts City. Councillors Sheena Hughes and Shelley Biermanski failed to convince their colleagues to beat the traffic out of the stadium when they proposed withdrawing from EG in 2021.
Council voted 5-2 to remain then, but not without some debate.
Mayor Cathy Heron said she would not want to signal to the region St. Albert isn’t “still all in all the time."
“This is a long-term game,” Heron said. “[Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Association] has been doing this for 20 years and they’re very successful at it. Now it’s time for us to be in, not just at the ground level, but all the way through.”
Coun. Mike Killick was swayed by a presentation by EG at that meeting.
“We may have to invest another year or two,” Killick said, armed with a better understanding of the agency’s approach. “As long as we stay the course, we can reap the rewards in the future.”
After Sturgeon County et al. voted to leave, the conversation returned to St. Albert Place.
“If [municipalities] keep dropping out, the structure doesn't really hold for me,” Coun. Ken MacKay said at a meeting in January of this year. “I don't know if there's a willingness for St. Albert to remain involved if it continues to shrink.
“Yes, the annual fees are expensive, but the return on investment for some of these communities is quite high. I don't know whether we could say the same thing.”
Coun. Wes Brodhead saw a communications problem.
“I suspect that Edmonton Global needs to sharpen their value proposition for the region,” he said. “If they sharpen their pencils there and they're better able to articulate what a regional collaborative economic development entity would bring to the region, as well as to Edmonton, then I think it will survive.
“If they are unable to do that, then I think it's going to be a bit of a struggle.”
In the meantime, Bouslama said the agency remains committed to engaging with members, addressing concerns, building trust and delivering meaningful results.
"We understand that over time, concerns have been raised about St. Albert’s continued membership in Edmonton Global," she wrote in an email. "We respect the deliberative process of each of our shareholder councils in making these decisions.
"As the economic development organization that is representing the Edmonton Region on the global stage, we see how regional collaboration is vital to the success of the entire Edmonton Metropolitan Region.
"The global economy is increasingly competitive, and we are stronger when we work together to position our region as an attractive destination for investment, job creation, and innovation."
