Rocky View County wants the Province to change its legislation to enable municipalities to charge levies for soft services.
Councillors took the request to the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMD&C) fall zone meeting, last weekend.
Currently, under the Municipal Government Act (MGA), jurisdictions in Alberta can’t legally ask for levies for community services such as fire protection, libraries and recreation facilities.
However, several jurisdictions around the province, including Calgary, have agreements with developers, enabling them to collect almost $126,000 per acre for soft services, while Rocky View has an optional recreational charge of $300 per unit.
Division 3 Councillor Gordon Branson brought the issue to council, Oct. 5.
“Currently, unless the jurisdiction has an agreement with their local urban development institute chapter, or agreements with individual developers, they can’t assess these charges because that is missing under the MGA,” said Branson. “Right now, we are building a huge unfunded liability for these services.”
Branson would like to see Section 648 of the MGA, which deals with levies, expanded. It is a position that is supported by many municipalities in the province.
In fact, according to Branson, both the AAMD&C and the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association have both passed resolutions calling on the Provincial government to make the amendments.
Branson presented a similar motion in July 2007, which was overwhelmingly endorsed by the AAMD&C at the time, but he wanted it mentioned again to bring the issue to the attention of residents and the Province.
“What we are really saying is we are all talking about this and we all recognize the need,” said Branson. “It is time to damn well implement it. We (Rocky View councillors) all feel very passionate about this.”
The issue is critical because, according to Branson, every time another residential unit is developed in the county, there is an incremental need for soft services, which is resulting in an ever-increasing unfunded liability.
“Each one of those new residents would expect they would have some access to fire protection and recreational opportunities,” said Branson.
“We would be able to charge $2,700 per residential unit…and $10,000 per acre for non-residential development,” said Branson, quoting numbers from the Peter Nichols report, which was presented to council on June 15, at a public services committee meeting.
If the amendments were made, the County would be able to charge levies without fear of legal consequences, he added.
Branson said it appears the Province should be onside, as one of the government’s goals as stated in the Feb. 2 Premier’s Mandate Letter to Minister of Infrastructure, Ray Danyluk, was to create, in Alberta, “one of the most advanced infrastructure in North America.”
