Municipalities meet in Calgary, hear from UCP leadership contenders

Alberta's UCP leadership hopefuls are reaching out to hundreds of the province's municipal officials as delegates meet in Calgary.

The Alberta Municipalities convention continues until Friday and some members say candidates looking to become the next premier will have to work to repair a contentious intergovernmental relationship.

"Strained at best, I think, is probably my word that I will use," said Tanya Thorn, the mayor of Okotoks.

"There's been a lot of decisions that have been made and imposed on municipalities (from the provincial government). We've seen a lot of downloading of cost, a lot of downloading of responsibilities," she said.

All seven UCP leadership candidates were in the hot seat Thursday afternoon at the convention, talking about healthcare, a possible provincial police force and how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled.

Municipal officials also have questions and concerns about how funding flows from the province down.

"We want to speak up as mid-sized city mayors saying that this funding formula doesn't work for our communities," said Cochrane Mayor Jeff Genung.

He's also the chair of the mid-sized cities mayors' caucus and the group wants to see the province increase the amount of funding in the Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF). Genung says the amount of money in the LGFF, which is the new funding model that will distribute money to two dozen municipalities, is too low and should be tied to provincial revenue.

"We are the economic drivers of the province of Alberta. Our communities are growing quickly. We have huge infrastructure needs and that funding needs to be equitable and aligned for the needs of our communities," said Genung.

Municipalities can sometimes have contentious relationships with the other two levels of government, explained Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek, and will feel "like we're not getting a fair shake."

"Although it is generally the nature of politics, I would say what we've seen from municipalities in Alberta over the last couple of years is a unified approach to asking for what we expect for our citizens from our provincial government," Gondek said.

The Alberta Municipalities convention wraps up Friday after speeches by both Premier Jason Kenney and NDP leader Rachel Notley.