Lowering the Municipal Voting Age

There was a proposal made by a youth advisory group to the Edmonton City Council suggesting that they ask the province to consider lowering the voting age in municipal elections to 16, from the present 18.  Edmonton city council narrowly approved their suggestion and will forward it to the provincial government.

I personally don't think it's a good idea.  I've worked with young people as a teacher for thirty one years, and I never met a bad kid.  But I think piling the responsibility of voting onto all the other new and confusing sensations and responsibilities facing them would be overwhelming. 

It's no secret that adolescence is difficult.  There are so many things happening to kids during that time, physically, emotionally, sexually, and socially!  Adding a political change to that as well, I think would be disastrous.

I also believe that 16 year old kids do not have the knowledge and experience to vote well.  They may not be able to recognize and be easily swayed by irrational or illogical political spiels.   Not that 18-year-olds (or older) don't get sucked in sometimes, too - Just look at the American election campaign on now!

To "Pho Chu Yeung"

I am answering "Pho Chu Yeung," who criticized the Village of Beiseker quite severely through the Village's Facebook page.

I was hurt by the accusations made by this (supposed) Beiseker resident, whom I have yet to meet.

• "[Beiseker] has no full time fire department."  I think we've addressed this first concern in my blog post a few days ago.   One anonymous commenter and I have discussed that a little further on that blog post, too - please scroll down to get those comments.
• "[Beiseker] has no ambulance service."  Beiseker is in the same situation here as every other Alberta municipality.  The ambulance services right across Alberta have been taken over by the province!  The service which we joined (The Kneehill Ambulance Service in Three Hills) was disbanded and is now part of the huge mega system run by Alberta Health Services.  We have little or no say on how this new entity operates.  Please refer this concern to the provincial government.
• "We haven't fixed a "hole" in the middle of town for a year."  Over the past few days I have driven every street and laneway in Beiseker, and I have yet to find the hole to which you refer.  Please give us an address of the nearest property so we may check out your concern.
• "The Town should be audited."  Actually, the Village of Beiseker is audited every spring by an independent auditor.  Those findings are published in a report presented to council usually in April.  The provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs is also informed of the results of that audit.  More information about the annual audit is available to all rate payers at the Village Office.

I hope this clarifies a few of the issues brought forward by Mr. or Ms. "Yeung."   Remember, every council meeting is open to the public.  They are held every second and fourth Mondays of each month in Council Chambers.  The meetings begin at 7:15 p.m.  If you wish to address council at one of those meetings, you must register as a delegation a few business days before the meeting.

Taxation: Municipal Budgeting

Step two in the taxation process is building a budget. 

Each municipality must go over their spending in each and every department during the previous year, then decide how much money that municipality will need to operate for the upcoming year.  The budgeting process begins in the fall of each year.

Most larger municipalities finalize their budgets close to the beginning of the calendar year, but many smaller ones finalize theirs in late spring.  For those who wait until spring, they must create and authorize an "Interim Budget," which is basically just an extension of last year's budget.

Provincial law mandates that municipalities must not operate with a deficit budget - so councils and administration staff  must work hard to "balance the budget" each year before in can be approved.

Smaller communities like ours must run a very tight ship.  We must provide our citizens with everything a larger municipality does, but with far fewer people to "pay the bills!"   Citizens of Beiseker still require streets and sidewalks, street lights, water & sewer services, playgrounds, recreation & cultural facilities, and fire protection, along with a host of other services -- but our tax base is much smaller than a city!

For example, an arena in a city must serve (and be paid for by) at least 20,000 taxpayers.  A small town arena may only serve fewer than 2000 people.  Yet both buildings must be built, maintained, and operated in a similar manner.  Beiseker is very fortunate that our Ag Society has taken on the task of managing our arena, here!

After the budget has been created and approved by the elected council, it's time to set the mill rate.

Taxation: Market Value Assessment

Here's my first of a series of blogs on municipal taxation.  I am writing these to address a concern by a citizen at last Monday's Town Hall Meeting.

The biggest source of income for all municipalities in Alberta is property taxation.  Every year, each municipality goes through a complicated procedure to figure out how much each property holder in that municipality will pay in property taxes.  Here are the steps;

Assessment:  First, the municipality must establish how much each property is worth so it may be taxed accordingly.  A few years ago, the Alberta provincial government insisted that the municipalities go to a system called "Market Value Assessment" aka MVA.  That means that each property would be assessed based on what the owner might get, if he were to sell it on the market today.

That works in larger municipalities, where many properties are bought and sold each year - but for small communities like ours, assessors must rely on a formula based on the selling price of similar properties in other similarly sized communities.  I think this system is seriously flawed --because finding a municipality exactly like ours is next to impossible.

Another problem with the MVA is the hardship it creates with seniors on a fixed income.  In Calgary, middle-class homes purchased in the 1950s and 1960s are now considered "inner city," and are assessed at millions of dollars!  Their assessments are so high, that those seniors who bought those homes 50 years ago can't afford the $500/month in property taxes.  They are priced out of their own homes and forced to move!

Larger municipalities can afford to have a "tax department," which can assess properties and handle any appeals.  Smaller communities like Beiseker have to hire an assessment company to do our assessments.

Every property owner will receive a assessment notice, usually in the spring of each year.  Property owners can appeal their assessment -- although there is a fee to do that. Property owners cannot appeal their taxes, only their assessments.

After all the assessments are completed, the assessors send the municipality a Total Assessment figure.  That represents what they think the total worth of the municipality.

Stay tuned tomorrow to find out how the municipality uses that figure to decide how much you pay in property taxes.

2014 AUMA Convention News

Last week, members of Beiseker village council attended the annual convention of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association in Edmonton.  The convention venue alternates between Edmonton and Calgary, and this year was Edmonton's turn.

There's a trade show, workshops, meetings with the Ministries, and get-togethers throughout the three day convention. 

Beiseker's meetings with the ministries were all on Wednesday.  First, we met with Environment and Sustainable Resource Development to discuss our flooding issues.  Our biggest difficulty with flood water is dealing with the huge volume of water we receive into the village from Rocky View County!  We asked Alberta Environment to help us deal with this huge volume of water, simply because we can't afford to do it alone.  We will be developing a plan to help alleviate the problem, working with the province and the County.

Next we were off to see Municipal Affairs.  To our surprise, the newly appointed Minister of Municipal Affairs, Diana McQueen was there to greet us.  We once again talked about our flooding issues and asked for their help, too.  We also discussed the difficulty small municipalities have with the new policy of depreciating Tangible Capital Assets (TCAs).

About three years ago, the provincial government decided that all municipalities should record ALL their assets.  That included all village owned buildings, vehicles, property, fire hydrants, water pipes and sewer pipes!  Then we have to depreciate all those things and include that amount in our yearly financial statements!  When we have an expensive year like 2013 (huge snow removal bills, water main leaks, etc.), and we include the TCA depreciation, it shows us operating very close to the wire!  This policy is not fair to small municipalities.  I think we made that quite clear.

Our last visit was to Alberta Transportation to talk about slowing down the traffic on North Road (aka Highway 72).  Vehicles are still exceeding the 50 km/h and the 30 km/h speed limits, some by a considerable amount.  A number of strategies were discussed. Stay tuned.

Councillor Karen, Assistant CAO Gail, MLA Bruce Rowe and I at the AUMA convention reception,
at Edmonton City Hall!
Councillor Dave is behind the camera!
(photo via Facebook)

Overall, I believe that our attendance at the AUMA Convention was a great success.  In the months following we'll see if our suggestions and requests took root in the provincial  ministries.

Next year's AUMA Convention will happen in Calgary in the fall of 2015.

Back from AUMA Convention

I'm back after a very good Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) convention in Calgary.  I think this year's convention was one of the better ones as far as Beiseker is concerned.

We met with three provincial government ministries (Transportation, Environment and Municipal Affairs) with positive results from each.

• Transportation:  We discussed traffic control (mostly speed controls) along Highways #9 and Highway #72.  It was decided that we try a number of different strategies to control the speeds along these highways.  We asked that the "Engine Retarder Brakes" sign on the west side of  Beiseker on Highway #72 be removed.  We want to see if it makes any difference at all in the use of those annoying engine retarder brakes (also known as 'Jake brakes') on those big trucks entering Beiseker.  In my opinion, the sign did nothing to convince many truckers from not using their retarder brakes within village limits.   We have to address this issue because the problem is getting worse!
• Environment:  We discussed ways to control melt water and storm water in our village centre.  The lack of grade is the main factor in our inability to quickly move water out of the downtown core, and into the drainage system on the village's east side.  We decided to find ways to solve this problem over the next summer season.
• Municipal Affairs;  The main topic of discussion here was fire protection.  Councillors Karen Ursu and Dave McKenzie did us proud, clearly discussing the issues we are having operating our volunteer fire department.  Municipal Affairs Associate Minister Greg Weadick was most helpful with suggestions on how we might proceed in solving these issues.  We also informed him that we would be actively seeking mutual aid agreements with the counties of Rocky View, Wheatland, and Kneehill in the near future.

On the trade show floor, we found information on playground equipment, safety equipment, rail safety, street furniture, and a host of other products and services for Beiseker.



Councilors Dave and Karen, assistant CAO Gail, and myself with Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi

  One of the highlights of my convention was the City of Calgary Reception held at Calgary's City Hall.  Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi was a most gracious host for the evening.  Fine food, good music, and guided tours of the newly re-opened Old City Hall (after June's devastating floods) made for a great evening.

Overall I was most pleased with A.U.M.A. Convention 2013.  Next year, the convention will be held in Edmonton in late September.  I'm already looking forward to it!

AUMA Convention

Tomorrow, municipal councilors from all over Alberta will meet in Calgary to begin their three-day Alberta Urban Municipalities Association convention.  The convention is held each year, usually in October, and alternates between Calgary and Edmonton.

This year it was moved into November, to give newly-elected councilors time to get up to speed.

The convention provides time and a venue for municipal councilors to meet with each other in educational sessions, brainstorming about common problems, having policy & resolution setting sessions, and information sessions.  An evening is usually set aside for social gatherings and get-togethers. 

Meetings are also arranged between the municipal councils and various provincial government ministries.  Beiseker will have meetings with the Departments of Municipal Affairs, Transportation, and Environment on Thursday.  It gives us a chance to talk to these provincial departments about local issues concerning Beiseker.

I'll let you know what transpired during those meetings, next week.   I am proud to say that our village will be well represented at the convention this year!  Four councillors and our Assistant CAO will be attending.

The Provincial Budget

A little over a week ago the provincial government came down with its new budget.

Premier Alison Redford had assured us that she would not be downloading any financial difficulties to the municipalities. I have examined the budget quite carefully, and I participated in a conference call with Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths and Transportation Minister Ric McIver the day after the budget was brought down. I disagree!

Here are some of my concerns regarding this budget and how it affects our little municipality.

• STEP (or, Summer Temporary Employment Program) was a grant so that we may hire students to work for the village over the summer.  It's been scrapped! This means that if the village wishes to hire students this summer, it will have to come up with the money itself.
• The Municipal Sustainability Initiative grants are continuing at their existing rate for this year, however the future of that program is in jeopardy. We used this program to upgrade the first block of our Main Street.  We were hoping that this program would continue so we may be able to upgrade the remainder of Main Street.
• I was unable to ascertain the future of the Seniors' Property Tax Assistance Program.  It will exist for 2013 but after that it's anyone's guess.  The program gave some tax relief to some seniors who have been caught by MVA (Market Value Assessment) and are, in my opinion, paying far more in property taxes than they should be.  Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths' office said they would find out what was happening here and get back to me. 
• Transportation Minister Ric McIver told us that almost all smaller projects have been put on indefinite hold.  Beiseker relies on those smaller projects!  But I hope the agreed changes to Highway 72 (North Road) will still go ahead this spring!
• The Water For Life program has been drastically reduced, but I understand the province will continue to fund accepted projects at the 90% level.  You will recall that Beiseker's regional water system (called Aqua 7 Regional Water Service Commission) was originally funded about 40% by the province.  Looks like there's not much money to help us out, there!
• There was no relief mentioned for small municipalities who have to pay their Education Portion of the property taxes in full to the provincial government -- even though they haven't collected that money yet!  Beiseker has around $250,000 owing in unpaid taxes but the province still yanks tens of thousands of dollars out of our account for the Education portion.  No questions, no comments, no deferral; nothing!
• I'm worried that over the next twelve months, other small programs and grants will be discontinued while the provincial government goes through its belt-tightening.  If Beiseker wishes these programs to continue, the money will have to come from our property tax pockets!

In my opinion, that's where we stand!  Most of these cuts are still in the "wait and see" file.

I hope we'll get more details in the weeks to come.

Electing a Mayor and Deputy Mayor

At last Monday's Beiseker Council Meeting, we ran into a most interesting problem.  According to the Municipal Governance Act (MGA) we had to elect a mayor to take the place of former Mayor and now MLA Bruce Rowe. I had been acting mayor up to that point.  I turned the meeting over to our Assistant Chief Administrative Officer who called for nominations and an election of Mayor. 

I was most honoured to be elected as your mayor.  I resumed as chair of the meeting and called for nominations for deputy mayor.  Two councillors were nominated. 

There became the interesting problem.  Because there are only four of us, a tie vote was a certainty.  We could find nothing in the MGA as guidelines for this situation so we decided to hold off on the vote until we get clarification from Municipal Affairs as to how to proceed. 

I've heard of some municipal councils in this province having to badger and coerce their councillors to assume the executive roles so this is a good problem to have.  I just want to be sure our election of a Deputy Mayor is absolutely fair.  Stay tuned on this one!

Congratulations Bruce! Now What?

May I be one of the first to congratulate our new MLA-elect Bruce Rowe on his win tonight!  Bruce took a leave of absence as Beiseker's Mayor a month ago to run as the Wildrose candidate for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills in the provincial election.  

Bruce now joins the other 16 or so elected Wildrose MLAs to form Her Majesty's Loyal Oposition sitting on The Speaker's left, facing Premier Alison Redford's Progressive Conservative government!  We in Beiseker are very proud of Bruce!

But what becomes of his position on Village Council?

First, we must wait for Bruce to hand us his official resignation as councillor of the Village of Beiseker.  Then we are given a set period of time by the Municipal Government Act to hold a byelection to select a new councillor. 

After we have elected a new councillor, we will ask the Minister of Municipal Affairs for permission to have an organizational meeting.  These are normally held once a year in October.  Permission will be given automatically.  That meeting will be chaired first by or Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and then taken over by the newly elected mayor. 

In small municipalities like Beiseker, the mayor and deputy mayor are elected by council from their number.

I will continue in my role as Acting Mayor until the organizational meeting is held.

The Mayor's election in Beiseker

The question of how the mayor is chosen has come up again.

The newly elected Councillors of the Village of Beiseker will conduct an organizational meeting soon after the election.  That meeting is scheduled for 7:30 pm in Council Chambers on October 25. At that meeting they will choose a mayor and a deputy mayor. The councillor chosen to be mayor may not be the one with the most votes in the recent election.

The councillor elected as mayor will be the one the other councillors think will be the best for the job. They will also assign councillors to different committees and boards on which the village needs representation.

Municipalities can decide to elect their mayor separately, usually when they get to large town size. They must apply for permission to do so through the Alberta Municipal Affairs Department.

Over the years I have served in all three positions on council: Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Councillor.