Recommended amendments to Bill 50

Last week, we sent a letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs recommending that the Government of Alberta make various amendments to Bill 50, the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2025, which is currently before the Legislature.

Our recommendations for amendments to Bill 50 align with our published analysis of Bill 50, and the points made and answers given at our April 24 webinar for members. We appreciate the feedback we have received thus far because it informs our analysis and ensures our position aligns with those of our members.

Our recommendations include:

• Enhancements to the proposed list of mandatory services for an intermunicipal collaboration framework (ICF) agreement and broader scope for arbitration when there is data to demonstrate that the service is commonly used by residents of the neighbouring municipality.
• Removal of the proposed provision that will require the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to report to council when the municipality uses "natural person" powers or a substantially narrowed scope of when the requirement applies. The intent of our proposed amendment is to avoid costly and time-consuming processes for municipal staff and let council deal with any performance concerns through their employment agreement with the CAO instead of legislating an increased requirement for all municipalities.
• Provide council the authority to pass a bylaw if they wish to set a period that is greater than 72 hours for when the CAO must provide information to the rest of council after it has been shared with an individual councillor. This will ensure councils have adequate authority to manage their affairs based on local capacity of the CAO (e.g., a part-time CAO) and council’s expectations of communication from the CAO.

We have also posed a variety of questions to the Minister of Municipal Affairs to gain clarity on how various proposed provisions in Bill 50 would apply and when opportunities for further engagement on regulations may occur. We will continue to communicate on these matters in the days ahead.

Please contact our Policy and Advocacy team by advocacy [at] abmunis.ca (email) if you have any questions or concerns about these recommendations.