Strathmore removed from CMRB

Strathmore and Wheatland County have officially been released from the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board, a move that will please both jurisdictions.  

Town of Strathmore Mayor, Pat Fule, said that when he found out the news, he was all for it. 

“Reeve Amber Link and I were at the board meeting yesterday where Minister McIver, Minister of Municipal Affairs said to us that we would be allowed to leave the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board (CMRD), I'm feeling really good about that.” 

“I've felt for the last four and a half years, I've been going to a lot of these meetings to get the growth plan done for the region and get it submitted to the province. To be honest, a lot of the things that have been discussed over the past four years don't really impact the Town of Strathmore and Wheatland County all that much.” 

The CMRB is a provincially mandated growth management board in the Calgary region. The Town and Wheatland County both sent letters to the Minister of Municipal Affairs earlier in 2021 requesting to be removed and have been waiting on an answer.  

“In the phone meeting that I had with Deputy Mayor Montgomery and our CAO Kevin Scoble with Minister McIver, I was able to make the point that we're doing a lot of really good regional partnerships.” 

“We've proven that we can work really well with Wheatland County. We have a good relationship with Siksika Nation. Those are the people that I'm the happiest about partnering with, and I think that's the best thing for our town.” 

Following discussions with board members, Alberta’s government decided to remove the Town of Strathmore and Wheatland County from the CMRB. Both municipalities have been clear that their distance from Calgary, their relatively small populations, and the costs associated with membership make their continued participation less practical than for other members of the CMRB. 

This update aligns the CMRB with similar changes made to the membership of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board (EMRB) in 2017.

Going forward, membership on both boards will consist of the large metropolitan city, the rural municipalities directly adjacent to them, and the urban municipalities within those rural municipalities that have populations greater than 5,000 residents. 

The remaining CMRB members are Calgary, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, High River, Cochrane, Foothills County, and Rocky View County.