As many of our member communities are aware, the City of Calgary (as well as the City of Edmonton) are working with the province on City Charters, which are pieces of provincial legislation that grant the two cities additional flexibility and authority over local decisions, while continuing to be guided by the Municipal Government Act.
We have heard from a number of our members who have concerns and ideas about the City Charters proposals. We encourage everyone to provide feedback on the proposed elements of the Charters, particularly those that apply most directly to non-profit organizations such as community associations. If your CA is active in planning and development issues, you may also be interested in providing feedback on any proposals that might have an impact on planning and policy decision making processes. The City has a website for the charter process here http://engage.calgary.ca/city-charter, and an overview package from the province is available here: http://www.alberta.ca/documents/City-Charters-Overview-Package.pdf.
There are a wide range proposed regulatory changes in the City Charters overview package; a few highlights from the enabling proposals that may be of interest to communities include:
-
Under the “Administrative Efficiency” theme:
- Community Organizations property tax exemption process;
- Roles in Council;
- Delegation of Powers;
- Council Processes;
- Bylaws and Municipal Purpose;
- Public Engagement and Communication;
- Rezoning notifications;
- A clarified “Restricted” definition (for tax exempt status of non-profits); and
- Clarity around for profit uses in tax exempt spaces.
-
Under the “Smarter Community Planning” theme:
- Allowing council to define additional types of statutory plans; and
- Allowing council to regulate content of the land use bylaw, methods of decision making, and issuance of development permits.
-
Under the “Collaboration” theme:
- An enabling proposal to help allow ‘community hubs’ with multi-purpose, shared spaces for community organizations.
Beyond the themes above, there are many other proposals related to environmental protection, climate change adaptation, affordable housing, and the property tax assessment process. We encourage you to have a read through and provide feedback from a broad, community-based perspective. The Federation will be providing our own comments, and we encourage our membership to share their ideas and perspectives to inform our own feedback as well.
When providing feedback, please keep in mind that the majority of the proposed regulatory changes contained in the Charters are enabling proposals: once passed into legislation by the provincial government, they will enable the City the flexibility to work within them. The specific, substantive changes to City processes and policies will happen when the City chooses to act on them. We fully expect, and will advocate for, meaningful and appropriate engagement at that time.
Timeline
If you want to provide feedback on the current overview, you can continue to provide it to the Province at ma.citycharters@gov.ab.ca until November 10, 2016. That's not it though! There will be further opportunities to provide feedback- the City Charters are being drafted in the coming months and will be posted online for comment by the Province in the spring of 2017, with a 60 day window for comments.
As always, if you have any questions about the Federation's take on the charters, or want more information, feel free to contact Dan at planning@calgarycommunities.com.