The recent United Conservative Party government decision to cut the province's contributions to the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board has created uncertainties that the region's 13 municipalities will be forced to solve, Mack Male said on Episode 287 of Speaking Municipally.
The board, created in 2017 but with roots in collaborative regional boards that date back to the 1940s, requires local statutory plans to align with its overall growth plan. This allows it to create binding targets, such as its region's density standards, to ensure its 13 municipalities coordinate, rather than compete with, duplicate efforts of, or undercut one another.
But with the UCP's shift to make EMRB membership voluntary for municipalities, and its decision to abruptly cut rather than create a ramp-down period for its funding, Male said the region is entering uncharted territory. "There's an open question about what happens to all of those plans, what happens to that regional planning," he said.
Male also discussed Alberta New Democratic Party leader Naheed Nenshi's criticism of the UCP decision as creating a "Wild West" during a housing crisis. Nenshi suggested the region will not be able to build housing where infrastructure is best suited for that growth.
Building on Nenshi's points, Male said the reasoning behind regional collaboration has always been to prevent the 13 member municipalities from "trying to solve the same large problem 13 times."
Pavlek, however, said the EMRB had failed to deliver at essential times, noting the abandoned regional transit commission that came out of the EMRB's broader masterplan goals. "That was a pretty critical failure on one of the marquee selling points of the EMRB," he said.
The Nov. 29 episode of Taproot's civic affairs podcast examines the UCP decision, including what it might mean for Edmonton Global, how Denver has invested in its downtown in ways that echo what some suggest Edmonton should do, Taproot's recent stories on participatory budgeting and the city's carbon budget, and more. Find all the ways to listen to and subscribe to Speaking Municipally, which comes out most Fridays, right here.