Developers in Alberta face the prospect of losing significant bargaining power in determining off-site levies. The proposed Off-Site Levies Regulation replaces a municipality’s obligation to negotiate levies in good faith with the much weaker obligation to consult. The Off-Site Levies Regulation will also shift the shared responsibility between the municipality and developers for defining existing and future infrastructure requirements to being the municipality’s sole responsibility.

On October 21, 2019, Calgary City Council passed a bylaw to amend its Off-Site Levies Bylaw (2M2016) to include the authority to levy developers for the capital costs of community recreation facilities, police stations, fire halls, and libraries (“Community Services Charges”). While this amendment was anticipated - The City had been collecting it for years as a putative voluntary charge - what was not anticipated was how amendments to the City of Calgary Charter, 2018 Regulation (“Charter Regulation”) permitted The City to pass this amendment without industry consultation, public hearing, or right of appeal.

An often heard justification for “big city” charters in Alberta is the Municipal Government Act (“MGA”) is “one size fits all” legislation, for everything from a summer village of 20 residents, to a city of 1.2 million. As stated by former Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee, “In order to ensure cities like Edmonton and Calgary are able to become centres of excellence on the international stage, the legislation applicable to them must recognize their unique status and needs.”

Conceptually, inter-municipal planning enjoys broad support. The efficient sharing of resources and infrastructure among, and cooperative land-use planning along the boundaries of, neighbouring municipalities make sense for taxpayers, municipal planners and politicians alike. The Capital Region (Edmonton and surrounding municipalities) has had inter-municipal planning regulation in place since 2012. For the Calgary region, however, the implementation of inter-municipal planning has proven to be elusive. The proposed Calgary Metropolitan Region Board Regulation (“CMRB Regulation”) is looking to fix that but it appears to have missed the mark.

In a recent article I raised the potential for Alberta city charters to go off the constitutional rails should Edmonton or Calgary city councils use their panoply of newly subdelegated powers without sufficient deference to the province’s sphere of powers. While this scenario unfolds – administrations of each city are currently drafting bylaws that will form part of their respective charters – two recent courts of appeal decisions are indicative of this elision of power of elected governments to their administrations. The exclusive jurisdiction of municipal councils to prescribe land uses and land use rules through bylaws that require public participation is being eroded either by their own deliberate actions (Vancouver) or by the generous application of bylaw relaxation provisions (Okotoks).