Alberta minister to review pay of municipal officials, ways to limit property taxes
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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is directing her municipal affairs minister to review local spending decisions — including how much elected municipal officials get paid.
A mandate letter from the premier to Dan Williams, published this week, says the pay review should ensure “taxpayer dollars are being respected” and officials are paid appropriately for the time put in and responsibility taken on.
Williams said in an interview local officials do important work and it’s not the government’s position that they are overpaid and underworked, but he plans to go into the review with an open mind.
“I don’t have a firm position on exactly where this lands,” Williams said Tuesday.
“I’m not pre-judging any individual compensation in any municipality.
“I want to come to this with open eyes and look at the data and see what it shows me.”
Williams did say there needs to be more transparency around how much local officials get paid, though many municipalities, including Edmonton and Calgary, share that information publicly.
“The premier, I think, is asking me to make sure that … electors and rate payers and citizens know what they’re getting and that it makes sense,” said Williams.
The minister has also been tasked with finding ways to limit annual property tax increases and counteract special taxes that some municipalities have or plan to place on second homes.
Williams said the province is doing its part to keep Alberta a low tax jurisdiction, and it expects municipalities to do the same.
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“Municipal taxes have continued to go up, and I’m going to be looking at ways to work with municipalities on limiting that so that Albertans get the best bang for buck,” he said.
Williams said municipalities need to focus on delivering core services rather than extracurricular spending, though he didn’t provide examples.
He also said that he doesn’t think Albertans should be taxed differently depending on where they live.
Asked if the province would consider limiting property tax increases to inflation rates or implement a blanket limit across the province every year, the minister didn’t rule anything out.
Tyler Gandam, president of Alberta Municipalities, said he’s not sure what the government’s intentions are, but the mandate letter seems more concerned with political buzzwords than plans to problem solve.
Gandam said he’d welcome a review of how much municipal officials get paid, but he’d like the review to be a two-way street.
“If we’re going to compare apples to apples and making sure that we’re respecting the taxpayers’ dollars, then I think we should do it full circle and not just base it on municipalities,” said Gandam, who is running for re-election as mayor of Wetaskiwin next month.
“Show me the exact same thing for what the province is doing and how they’re coming to the agreement of a wage increase for the government of Alberta,” he said, pointing to how Alberta legislature members had their pay increased by a bit more than two per cent earlier this year.
Gandam also took issue with the implication that municipal governments aren’t transparent about how tax dollars are spent, especially when the implication is coming from the provincial government.
“The difference between the provincial and municipal governments in terms of transparency is night and day,” he said.
“They do their budgets behind closed doors … whereas municipal councilors and councils are doing everything in public.”
If the province believes towns and cities are hiding cash and unnecessarily hiking property taxes, Gandam said, the government is welcome to take part in the municipal budget development process.
Edmonton councillor and mayoral candidate Andrew Knack was also critical of the letter. He said on social media Tuesday that if the province wants to reduce municipal taxes, it should increase infrastructure funding.
Opposition NDP municipal affairs critic Kyle Kasawski said the mandate letter shows that Smith’s government just wants strip local officials of their decision-making power.
“The minister wants to be the city manager for the entire province,” said Kasawski.
“They’re trying to really take away any of the effectiveness of the local governments to do their job.”
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