Braid: Step by step, the UCP bends Alberta authorities to its will

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The new rules for towns and cities make it clear who’s boss. It is the UCP government, not the city councils or the voters who elect them.

Under upcoming laws introduced Thursday, the province will be able to form a local council and fire individual members.

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The province can also repeal a local bylaw on any issue, vastly expanding its existing power to block only land use laws.

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In another echo of post-pandemic grudges, the UCP appears to take control of any municipal orders on public health measures.

These are the latest moves in a widespread consolidation of provincial government power.

Step by step, local authorities are being brought into line as the UCP lays the foundations of sovereignty.

Prime Minister Danielle Smith has intervened in the funding of university research, adding the demand for a more conservative ideology.

Upset that Ottawa has reached direct agreements with towns and cities, a UCP bill would invalidate any agreement if the province were not directly involved.

This appears to be aimed primarily at Calgary and Edmonton, who constantly pester the UCP with bilateral federal agreements.

But the bill reaches down to smaller municipalities, education boards, universities, health authorities and public and Crown agencies.

No public authority in Alberta dares deal with the federal government unless provincial observers are available to stamp their approval.

This is a heavy burden of bureaucracy for a government that loves to boast about its red tape cutting department.

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Thursday’s announcements relate to local elections, councils and political funding. They add up to the biggest overhaul of these rules in many years, all based on the premise that the province is supreme.

That is true in law, of course; but the province has generally been a benevolent matrix, tolerant of local diversity and even some opposition.

That era is quickly fading, despite Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver’s promise that the province will govern with a gentle hand.

The most striking measure – rule-making for civic political parties – is driven by the UCP’s dreams of sweeping big-city progressives from power.

That will only happen in Edmonton and Calgary. Why not draft party rules that cover all municipalities?

McIver is not interested. He says smaller centers are free to allow parties if they wish, but there is little interest.

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Another reason, I would suggest, is that most councils in rural Alberta are already comfortably filled with UCP supporters.

But Conservative governments, from the Progressive Conservatives to the United Conservatives, have never managed to get their own loyalists into the mayorships of Calgary and Edmonton. They find this deeply irritating.

The final slap in the face was the election in Edmonton of Amarjeet Sohi, a former minister in Trudeau’s Liberal cabinet.

In Calgary they are stuck with progressive Jyoti Gondek, who in 2021 handily defeated conservative challenger Jeromy Farkas.

It was nothing new. In 2001, Dave Bronconnier became mayor after running federally for the Liberals in 1997 and getting badly beaten.

He was a successful municipal leader who managed to build many projects, won three elections and provoked attacks on the PCs in a series of tense clashes with then-premier Ed Stelmach over broken funding promises.

Then came Naheed Nenshi. In 2010, he defeated Conservative McIver, who moved into provincial politics and introduced the measures Thursday.

In 2017, Conservative supporters supported local businessman Bill Smith, former chair of the provincial PC party. He did very well, but he still finished 30,000 votes behind Nenshi.

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It’s a sad story: Conservatives just can’t crack these eggs. But now, big city parties could work for the UCP.

Gondek and the current council majority introduced measures, including blanket zoning and a bag bylaw, that were never mentioned in the 2021 campaign.

Parties would make what is at stake much clearer, the theory goes, by publishing platforms saying what they would and would not do with a majority.

And that would attract conservative-minded voters who previously had no idea what the candidates in their district represented.

This idea could well be correct, if only because many people are deeply unhappy with this advice.

But you can’t miss what happens here. The UCP is training the entire public sector to be able to provide loyal service.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

X: @DonBraid

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