By Curtis Galbraith

City Hall

Council to discuss role in Federation of Canadian Municipalities

Feb 8, 2021 | 9:29 PM

Grande Prairie City Council says it will have a discussion at its next advocacy session about being part of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

This came out of a discussion about a letter from the Municipal District of Bonnyville, which complained about a lack of advocacy from FCM about the concerns of municipalities in Western Canada.

Mayor Jackie Clayton says the Mayor in Bonnyville was asking about the viability of a separate group that would represent western Canadian municipalities at the federal level.

“Right now, all the municipalities across Canada belong to a federal association and that federal association discusses topics of federal importance for all municipalities. The intent of this conversation was to be whether or not there was value in a western Canadian association to talk about western-related issues.”

She adds council’s stance on the job FCM is doing depends on the topic.

“FCM does a great job in communication on broad-spectrum things, whether it’s rail or airports or topics that are (of) a federal nature.”

Some on council talked about a lack of awareness of the tough times for the Alberta energy business among attendees at the last FCM conference held in 2019. Clayton says municipalities often get tied up in things important to themselves.

“Sometimes it’s hard to take a step back and realize the importance of issues that municipalities across the province are facing. Energy impacts every single municipality across the county and stepping back to have a look at this, in my opinion, will be of extreme value.”

Clayton says the more than 300 Alberta delegates at that 2019 conference set up a booth where people from other parts of the country could learn about this province’s energy business.