A delegation from Wheatland County attended the Rural Municipalities Association (RMA) spring convention earlier this month. The event is a chance for rural communities to come together, network, share opportunities, speak with provincial officials, and lobby on behalf of their municipality.
The RMA Spring 2022 convention was held in Edmonton.
Reeve Amber Link who attended the convention said, “The Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) Spring 2022 Convention is an excellent opportunity for Alberta’s rural municipalities to gather, network, share best practices, learn from one another, and meet with provincial elected officials and senior department officials to discuss ongoing issues and items pertaining to our communities.”
She continued, “Wheatland County strives to have elected representatives attend each convention (both Spring and Fall). The Spring 2022 convention had some interesting speakers – Chris Koch as a keynote highlighted the fact that limitations and obstacles will always arise in anyone’s line of work, and life for that matter. He inspired convention delegates to not let limitations and obstacles get in the way, and to continuously challenge ourselves to move forward and be resilient. Many other keynote presentations contained undertones of being fearless, challenging the conventional, and learning from mistakes to move forward.”
On Monday, March 28, the province announced that Wheatland County would no longer be a member of the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board (CMRB).
At RMA, the Reeve revealed Wheatland delegates were able to ask questions of Ministers in attendance during ministerial forums.
“Local elected officials can ask questions to specific ministers – questions surrounding COVID-19 recovery, economic development, senior’s housing subsidies, the assessment model changes, uncollected taxes, road and sewer infrastructure state-of-good-repair deficits, and the overall state of the economy and what the provincial plans are to tackle the challenges ahead,” said Link.
She explained that Wheatland County had the distinction of chairing the Growth Management Board (GMB) Rural Caucus. The caucus is comprised of all rural municipalities that are mandated to participate in the Calgary Metropolitan Regional Board (CMRB) and the Edmonton Metropolitan Regional Board (EMRB).
“The Rural Caucus is important for Wheatland County to attend because we can listen to one another, share our concerns – what’s not working; what is working; what can improve; how we can come together to shape the growth boards to provide equal rural representation and perspective – to lobby the province to make changes. We were able to understand from our rural neighbours in the EMRB that there are similar concerns and rural voices need to be heard in the EMRB just as much as the CMRB,” she said.
Wheatland County Council was also able to meet with the Honourable Minister of Municipal Affairs – Ric McIver, as well as the Honourable Minister of Transportation – Rajan Sawhney.
The county met with McIver to discuss their CMRB membership and the release of the Growth Plan as well as opportunities for potential deep serviving for the west side of Wheatland County.
“All of these discussions are always aimed at Wheatlands primary strategic objective: to attract investment in our County, as we are open for business,” says Link.
A number of resolutions that could effect the county were supported at the convention. The resolutions are an important step to local advocacy and action. A few of those resolutions include:
Resolution 2-22S -Negative Impact of Carbon Tax on Rural Albertans, Resolution ER1-22S - Alberta Energy Regulator Action to Require Oil and Gas Companies to Pay Municipal Property Taxes and Resolution 4-22S- Continued Support for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta.
Wed, May 1, 4:39 PM
