A war of words is brewing between Alberta’s Premier and municipal councils after some local leaders claim the province has overstepped its bounds. The back-and-forth stems from an infill housing decision made by Danielle Smith in Edmonton this week. Smith claims that decision will help residents and address building issues in the city, but local councils see it differently. Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack called it an “ultimatum” Thursday. On Friday, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas — whose city will be unchanged by the decision — joined in. “That’s an absolutely ridiculous proposition,” he said. “They have authority over municipalities, but they do not have the authority to order me to vote a certain way as part of a public hearing.” “The analogy would be appointing a judge and then ordering that judge to convict somebody. That just doesn’t happen. You don’t have that level of political interference.” Farkas argues the Premier should stay in her own lane. He says municipal leaders have a mandate to do municipal work, and that the province has other things that it should be focused on. The Alberta Municipalities President backed up that statement Friday. “MLAs who don’t live in a community can’t understand its needs,” Dylan Bressey said. “The province has created municipal governments so that we have local politicians accountable to local people having conversations with their communities about what is best.” Bressey says member municipalities have been worried about a number of local decisions made by this UCP Government on subjects like bike lanes, photo radar, library materials and police funding. “I’ve talked to mayors and councillors from the far south to the far north, from our tiny summer villages to our big cities, and they are deeply concerned about provincial actions that have taken away local authority,” he said. “Again and again and again, these changes have had unintended consequences in communities that the province didn’t even mean to make, but they didn’t consult correctly.” Farkas says a future court challenge on the housing review change isn’t off the table. Communications breakdown? Calgary’s mayor claims the province not respecting jurisdiction is just one issue. “It’s been challenging, honestly, to get time with the premier,” he said. “I’ve asked for that meeting and she’s indicated that her top priority right now is on the referendum. She’s busy traveling elsewhere in the province. Which is why it was quite disappointing to me to see this news suddenly out of the blue.” “(My office has) really been trying so hard to get together since at least May or June.” The Premier didn’t speak to media Friday. Press Secretary Sam Blackett sent a statement saying, in part, that “Farkas knows he can get a hold of the Premier directly anytime via text. In fact they text regularly.” The statement adds that “last week, the Premier also scheduled a meeting date with Mayor Jeromy Farkas to take place before we return to session and before Calgary begins budget deliberations in two weeks.” A senior staffer in the office tells CTV News the Premier is constantly fielding “substantial conversations” with other political figures over text message.
