Premier Jason Kenney's recent comments on the Municipal Government Act have drawn criticism and concern from many, including Okotoks Mayor Tanya Thorn.
In a recent Facebook Q&A, Kenney said he was open to the possibility of restricting municipalities from enacting their own COVID measures.
"They have very wide-ranging general kind of generic bylaw authority under the Municipal Government Act but we will certainly take a look at that because I don't think that city governments, aldermen and councillors... this is not their normal field of responsibility. They don't have access to the same data that we do," said the premier.
He went on to say he'd be concerned with "municipal politicians improvising their own local policies," and that the provincial government wouldn't be able to amend the act until legislature resumes in early March.
For Thorn, that flies in stark contrast to the summer of 2020 when Kenney said he'd respect municipal governments' rights to enacting their own measures (namely masking bylaws.)
"Municipalities were pushing the province quite strongly, as were many other organizations, to make a uniform decision around masking, but the province, at that time, didn't want to take that political leadership, so he strongly encouraged municipalities and businesses to make those decisions, so many of us did... None of us wanted to play in that lane, we all very clearly told the province 'this is your jurisdiction, you should be making these decisions,' but they didn't want to make that decision at that time. So, to me, it is hypocritical."
Thorn also feels that the premier's point about municipalities not having same the data as the province could easily be solved.
"We, as municipalities, as the Town of Okotoks, we've just been asking the province to share the data with us so we can understand the decision making that's occurring and how that is affecting our individual municipality, but we can't get access to that data. That is probably where my bigger concern is. Just share the data, tell us how the decisions are being made, then everybody would have a clear understanding."
Thorn did stress that municipal COVID measures are not currently on the table for Okotoks town council and that there are no plans to bring them into the discussion at the moment.
Despite that, she feels municipal governments should be afforded the same autonomy as other levels of government.
Concerning public health measures, she'd like to see some dialogue between the two levels of government.
"When it comes to public safety, both the province and municipalities have a role. We need to have a conversation around what that looks like if he makes that change because I think it's potentially short-sighted of not looking at the other implications a change like that could make."
Her stance reflects that of Alberta Municipalities, who issued a statement on the same day as Kenney's Q&A, stating their opposition to the notion.
Thorn, who is currently a vice president with Alberta Municipalities, also shared her frustration at Kenney's apparent willingness to consider changes to the MGA despite his reluctance in the past.
"There's lots of things we've wanted the government to go in and modify in the Municipal Government Act, but that has been a long and laborious process. It's very interesting to me that all of a sudden we can easily go in there and make those changes to support an outcome for a position that the current government wants. I struggle with that, it's not based in, from my perspective, good governance or data. That's where I am."