WESTLOCK — The Town of Westlock will hand over information on one municipal-federal agreement it had in 2022, following the request by Alberta’s Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver.
At the Jan. 8, 2024 regular council meeting, councillors briefly discussed the request made by the province last month in a letter dated Dec. 14, to provide an overview of agreements in place, if municipalities had any.
According to Town of Westlock CAO Simone Wiley, the town did hold one or two agreements between Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, 2022, which she briefly addressed at the meeting, after Coun. Curtis Snell inquired “what are they looking for” regarding the request.
“They’re collecting it to help the province continue to advocate for equitable funding from the federal government,” said Wiley.
“They give you an example of what kinds of agreements that the province is looking for us to share with them.”
Wiley said the town does not have very many (agreements) to hand over to the province but did note “there’ll be a couple of grant agreements” between the requested time period of Jan. 1, 2022 and the end of 2022.
“I think there will actually be only one so it’ll be a very short list for us of the agreements that we have,” she added.
Some municipalities in Alberta have refused to hand that information over, as Wiley pointed out.
“There’s been another municipality who has said we don’t think we need to share that information with (the) provincial government, but at this time, I’m not sure that that’s of any concern for us.”
Wiley said the information will be on the public record.
Then-acting mayor Murtaza Jamaly said he believes it is just an administrative request from one level of government to another.
"I think that’s all it is. I don’t think there’s anything hidden here, I don’t think there’s any risk or any concern,” said Jamaly. “This is about saying how much money did you receive from the feds."
“As the letter indicates, this is coming from the premier’s desire to see that the province of Alberta is getting their fair share from the federal government,” he said. “I think part of that measure is dollars that flow directly from the federal government to local municipalities.”
Jamaly noted like any financial (document), the information being handed over is public information and said he thinks the province is looking for municipalities to summarize it in a way that makes it easy for them to (identify) “all the dollars that flowed to municipalities,” he said, noting the only audited financial statements they would have available are the 2022 audited financials.
Jamaly said since the request pertains to information he thinks “lives in the public record”, there are no real concerns with handing it over to the province.
“It’s not confidential, it doesn’t sacrifice our position, it’s not protected,” explained Jamaly. “I think the biggest thing is the province is continuing to try and demonstrate to the federal government about transfers from the federal government, from Ottawa to Alberta and this is a way of measuring it easily.”
Funds that flow from the federal government to the municipal government most commonly come through the province said Jamaly, noting the government of Alberta often administers federal funds to municipalities on behalf of the feds so they would be aware of those funds.
”They’re specifically looking for agreements that don’t involve the province and those agreements “would be very few and far between,” he added, noting it may be an attempt to demonstrate that the province of Alberta receives a lower share of federal dollars.
“I think that’s their endeavour and how can you know that unless you have all the information,” said Jamaly.
In an email Wiley provided examples of the different agreements and contracts in place between municipalities and the federal government, including building leases for the RCMP K-Division; maintenance of federal properties provided by municipalities; mutual aid agreements between First Nations and municipalities; funding by Heritage Canada for national celebrations, such as Canada Day; and community mailboxes for Canada Post.
Municipal Affairs is requesting municipalities provide an overview of the agreements they hold with the federal government by Jan. 31, 2024 and is specifically collecting the name, value, purpose, date, and duration of agreements signed or in effect between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2022.
