The Government of Alberta introduced legislation to prevent the federal government from making agreements with municipalities, including the City of Calgary, and other provincial entities without the approval of the Alberta Government.

Bill 18, if passed, would be the second such legislation passed in the nation after Quebec’s similar legislation.

Among the entities that would have to have prior provincial approval before receiving funding from the federal government, would be any public agencies of which Alberta has 243, including crown corporations, and public post-secondary institutions, in addition to school boards, regional health authorities, covenant health, municipal governments, and management bodies under the Alberta Housing Act.

Both government officials and United Conservative Party politicians, including Premier Danielle Smith, have said that the bill aims to get a “fair deal” from the federal government in terms of federal funding towards the province.

“It is not unreasonable for Alberta to demand fairness from Ottawa. They have shown time and again that they will put ideology before practicality, which hurts Alberta families and our economy,” said Premier Smith.

The premier characterized federal funding into the province, against the political aims of the province, that “Ottawa is neglecting its own responsibilities while meddling needlessly in ours. Albertans don’t want federal funding to show the world how virtuous we are, or to polish Canada’s halo internationally.”

Among that list of perceptions of meddling by the federal government in provincial affairs included federal housing agreements made with Calgary and Edmonton, while not making those same agreements with other Alberta municipalities.

“Alberta is much more than Edmonton and Calgary. Municipalities across the province are trying to address the housing supply in their communities. They are being ignored,” said Minister of Municipal Affairs, Ric McIver.

Premier Smith said the province should be getting a fair amount of per capita funding for housing. The Government of Alberta defended the bill saying that Alberta was only getting 2.5 per cent of per capita funding based on announcements made by the federal government for housing in Summer 2023.

When accounting for the entire length of funding periods for those same agreements, federal housing minister Sean Fraser said the per capita funding amounts to 11.4 per cent of total funding versus Alberta having 11.5 per cent of the country’s population.

Provincial officials, in talking about the bill ahead of its tabling in the legislature, characterized it as legislation that would ensure that provincial priorities were paramount over federal ones.

Bill follows promises by federal government of millions in funding for housing

Premier Smith identified land use upzoning, net-zero home building, and safe consumption sites as some of the areas that have caused her and her government the most issued around promised federal funding.

“What we don’t like is the way they’re manipulating municipalities, upending their laws in order to get a little bit of funding, and then playing one region off against another, big cities off against small city, and not giving us our per capita share,” she said.

Minister McIver said in response to comments made on April 9 by Mayor Gondek about wanting the end of infighting between the provincial government and the federal government that affects municipalities.

“You don’t have to be a constitutional lawyer to get elected to the province or a municipality. But the fact that its municipal authority is 100 per cent in the hands of provincial governments, full stop. So neither mayors or municipal councillors should be surprised that the province has stuck an oar in the water on this one.”

McIver said they would work collaboratively with Calgary and other municipalities to ensure any federal funding – including the recently announced housing cash – is distributed appropriately.

“But the fact is, it is possible that we could have been invited to the table before this agreement, but we were not. And so the natural consequence is unfolding now, and we will make the best of it and we expect the city will to.”

The announcement of Bill 18 followed a string of high-profile housing funding announcements in Calgary, including that by Prime Minster Justin Trudeau, ahead of the federal government’s Budget 2024.

Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Randy Boissonnault speaking on April 2, said that the federal government was taking a “Team Canada” approach to the housing crisis, albeit with conditions.

“This is about the fact that Canadians need more homes built now, and they need them today. I hope that provinces and territories are going to work with us to make sure that happens, and if they don’t, we’re going to go directly to the municipalities,” he said.

Bill 18, if passed, would potentially put up roadblocks for the City of Calgary to receive any housing funding.

Mayor Gondek: The province wants the “speed of bureaucracy”

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek reiterated comments made earlier this week that the province is impeding federal and municipal funding pacts. That could impact ongoing growth pressures in Calgary, she said.

“Keep in mind, while we wait for a newly-minted provincial bureau of overreach to plod through agreements, other cities across this country will be eating our lunch,” she said.

“Other cities will take what belongs to us and that’s not something I’m interested in enabling.”

The mayor was also concerned with how this might impact school boards and post-secondary schools in Calgary, along with non-profit organizations that also receive provincial support. She said this legislation could have their ability to tap into federal funds curtailed by the proposed legislation.

The mayor said that they wouldn’t change their municipal priorities to fall in line with the province just to tap into federal cash. She said she hoped they all shared the same priorities of housing, public safety, mental health and addictions care, and quality transit.

“I cannot accept that a provincial government with control issues is about to take away what rightfully belongs to Calgarians,” Mayor Gondek said.

“The people of this city deserve to have their hard-earned income tax dollars flow back into their communities for the services that they deserve. And that’s something that’s worth fighting for.”

Mayor Gondek said they’ve spent the past several years pressing the federal government for more money for Calgary. She said now that they’ve finally got the feds to come to the table in a substantial way, the province is putting up barriers.

“Now that cities actually have the ear of the feds and they’ve created funding streams that will allow us to build more homes, to fix broken roadways and make sure that your drinking water is safe, the provincial government, the very same one that wants to cut red tape and operate at the speed of business, that provincial government now wants to slam the brakes and slow things down to the speed of a bloated bureaucracy,” she said.

Questions on consultation over Bill 18

Alberta Government officials said that agreements not signed before the royal assent of Bill 18 would not be affected by the passing of Bill 18.

However, the order of consultation surrounding legislation and regulations leading up to legislation being passed would be reversed.

The Alberta Government has typically performed consultation before the passing of legislation, but with Bill 18, if its passing occurs, would come before a planned consultation with municipalities and stakeholders in the summer.

Premier Smith blamed Prime Minister Trudeau for his lack of consultation with the province ahead of talking about making funding agreements with Edmonton and Calgary.

Speaking before Calgary city council on Wednesday morning, representatives from the Alberta Municipalities said that they were not consulted on the bill before its announcement.

In a response to a question by Mayor Jyoti Gondek, Tyler Gandam, mayor of Westaskiwin and President and Chair of Alberta Municipalities said that without consultation the province “can bring forward legislation, and we sit there and scratch our heads and ask why, and hope that we can change what’s happening.”

“All we can do is offer suggestions on how it might work better. As I said earlier on, it was about making it better for municipalities not creating more red tape or us being the leverage for the province against the federal government,” Gandam said.

Despite the statement made by Gandam during Wednesday morning, Minister McIver said that the government had consulted with municipalities.

“We haven’t consulted in detail and everything in the legislation in broad terms, we have had discussions with municipalities. I raised the possibility of this legislation recently in speeches that I gave at Rural Municipalities of Alberta.”

Government officials said that the extent of consultation before the bill was requesting details about agreements made by municipalities with the federal government in January.

Premier Smith said she was given the mandate through leadership, election wins

Premier Smith justified the bill by saying that Albertans had already given her government the authority based on her election.

“We had a fair deal panel that happened years ago, there were tens of thousands of Albertans who participated in the process, and talked about us asserting our authority on under the Constitution on a whole range of areas. Then I won the [UCP] leadership on the basis of the promising and Alberta Sovereignty Act that once again, would assert our areas of constitutional jurisdiction,” she said.

The province wasn’t able to immediately answer questions about how many agreements were made with the federal government by municipalities, instead saying that of 208 across the province 117 had responded to requests by Alberta ministries for information—and of those, 91 did not have agreements in place.

Government officials also denied that the bill would add red tape to public agencies and municipalities, saying there’s no intention to delay access to funding and that an approval process would be created after the bill’s passing to efficiently process requests.

• with files from Darren Krause