Centralized authority, uncertainty
Published January 11, 2008
On December 19, 2007, the provincial announced that it intended to implement with one or two very minor adjustments, the recommendations of the Radke report. More
This report was commissioned by the provincial government to address regional cooperation and its relationship to oil sands related industrial development in the region. No one in government or elsewhere, however, was able to define a problem, if there was indeed a problem. This is hardly surprising as no one in government bothered to consult with either industry or many municipalities before starting on this quest.
Radke recommends the formation of a regional board consisting of one representative from each of the 25 surrounding municipalities. In spite of provincial government assurances that this is not a new, fourth level of government inserted between the province and the municipalities, the new body will have the powers both to make binding decisions about what happens within the municipality and to access tax funds of the municipality. Those sound like governmental powers to me.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, maybe it's a duck. The report itself is more noteworthy for the naive sophistry, so favoured by the province, than for any particular enlightenment. For those with better things to do than to wade through this monstrosity, I shall attempt to describe how it will affect our lives.
Tax increase inevitable
The first impact of this board will be financial. Notwithstanding provincial denials, the regional board will without doubt result in an increase in municipal taxes. Whether it will be a large increase or a moderate increase will depend on the details of implementation.
The regional board will have the ability to seek funding through requisition. If the regional board votes in favour of cost shared expenditures, it will have the province make a requisition from the member municipalities. One assumes that the report suggests this convoluted approach in an attempt to pretend that the board has no taxation powers. Whether one chooses to call this a requisition or a tax, it amounts to the same thing - monies will be confiscated from the municipalities and used somewhere else by someone else. To compensate, municipalities will have to raise taxes to maintain service levels or permit service levels to decline. This is a zero sum game and it baffles me how the province can insist, as they do, that there will be no difference in cost. Industries such as those in our own Industrial Heartland understand this very well. They know that an increase in taxes is going to hit them the hardest and are justifiably concerned.
Then there is the overhead of the board itself. This will be more than simply 25 elected officials sitting around debating regional issues.
The Radke report recommends a complex bureaucracy consisting of "a Chief Administrative Officer, Professional Staff, Clerical Staff, Financial Staff and other Human Resources, and a Facilitator". These folks do not come cheap. The province has promised $500,000 for 2007/2008. How far do they think that is going to go in a world where an average senior manger can expect to earn six figures? And then there will be the indexed pensions, office space, travel, expense accounts, conferences, advertising, swivel chairs, Blackberries and all the other trappings of government.
The province has promised funding for three years, and then the 25 municipalities would be on their own to cover the costs. Well, some of them will. Radke provides a mechanism whereby some municipalities would contribute at a lower rate and some would be exempt from contributing at all. How likely is it that Strathcona will benefit from this generosity? I suggest not likely at all.
Planning decisions centralized
The second impact will be in the area of regional planning. The regional board will have the authority to make sweeping land use decisions within the municipalities if in its sole opinion, the issue is regional. To a developer or a landowner, the least that this will mean is that any application will have to pass through two bureaucracies with all the time and money that implies before a decision can be reached. The regional board will decide whether or not to be involved.
Landowners whose properties are adjacent to municipal boundaries can almost certainly expect to see their lands frozen to development well into the future as the bureaucratic and political wrangling plays out.
What could this mean?
It could mean, for instance, that a regional dump could be built in our county, largely paid for from our tax base, without our being able to influence the decision. It could mean that a high voltage power line or high pressure pipeline could be constructed through Sherwood Park in direct opposition to our wishes. It could mean that our tax dollars could go towards building an LRT line from Edmonton to Leduc of instead of being used for a recreation facility in our county.
While not all of these are on the table at present, they are all real possibilities given the Regional Board's powers.
Our protection from abuse is the laughably arcane decision making structure proposed by Radke. The municipalities are enjoined to reach consensus on decisions; however, if consensus does not evolve, then a voting system is proposed to break a deadlock. No one seems to have explained to the author that consensus backed by a binding vote is not consensus at all. This failure to understand simple concepts and the meaning of common English words is one of the many frustrating and frightening things about Radke's report.
Edmonton has a veto
The voting process is no more reassuring. To win approval requires 17 of the 25 municipalities representing at least 75% of the region's population, thus giving the City of Edmonton an effective veto.
So what are the results of this clumsy attempt to solve a problem that does not exist? Cooperative ad hoc decision making in the region has been replaced by bitterness and formalised confrontation. The industrial growth that we are attempting to protect is now faced with huge uncertainties in everything but the inevitable increase in costs. Saskatchewan is starting to look pretty good to many industries.
We now have yet another entry in the long and sorry list of misguided initiatives undertaken by this government.
We have had the electrical market fiasco, the dismantling of the health care system, the royalty review scandal, the gutting of public participation through Bill 46, just to highlight a few. Now we have Radke. We Albertans are patient folks, but how many more chances do we give these underachievers?
Alan Dunn
Councillor, Ward 6
780-464-8206
dunn@strathcona.ab.ca
Last updated: Thursday, June 17, 2010
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