Rural municipalities president talks property taxes, rural policing after annual convention

Kara Westerlund on Alberta Primetime Nov 20, 2025

Rural Municipalities of Alberta president Kara Westerlund joins Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins to discuss policing, taxes and more from the organizations annual conference.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: We’re only just catching you after the close of the convention?

Kara Westerlund: Yes, appreciate you having me. It’s been incredible week here having our annual conference. It was our largest convention ever, since 1909, so pretty proud of that.

We had just shy of 800 people in the rooms and participating over the last few days with very important rural issues. Especially coming on the heels of the municipal election, it allowed our newly elected officials a taste for what they’re in for in the coming months and years.

MH: Let’s start on an address from the premier discussing building the sheriffs service.

What are you members working though now, as this new dynamic could change policing at the local level?

KW: There continues to be a lot of questions around what this is going to look like, and what it means for rural Alberta and how it’s going to operate. Not only the cost behind it, but the governance structure, it seems to be the way that we’re moving.

There were a lot of questions and comments, right down to asking the minister and the premier if we are going to be able to actually break out police cost formally on property tax bills that go out to our residents. Because it’s starting to become yet another piece that we are taking on that we’ve got no control over.

MH: On the point of property taxes – how much clarity did your members get on the issue of unpaid property taxes from oil and gas companies?

KW: We really appreciate the opportunity to listen to the premier and for her to answer questions directly around the unpaid oil and gas taxes. Obviously, after nearly a decade, it continues to be a problem on our landscape. I will share with your viewers there is some very meaningful work being done between Municipal Affairs offices as well as [Energy] Minister [Brian] Jean’s office.

We did form a task force this time last year, and they are well on their way to having recommendations and solutions put forward. We were hoping to have them before our members here at the Fall convention, but we understood we needed to pull back a little bit to make sure we had the proper data and information as we moved to find the solutions together on this. We’re looking at mid-January to have some movement on that file, and we’re really appreciative of the work that both those ministries are doing and the acknowledgement that this is a huge issue.

Enough is enough. You and I both know if we don’t pay our property tax taxes, what happens? We’re just asking for that to be passed down to the companies that do work on our landscape.

MH: When Alberta Municipalities recently met for their fall convention, they passed a resolution pushing the provincial government to collect its own education property tax.

Where does that land on RMA radar?

KW: We didn’t have anything directly around that resolution. I was in attendance at the Alberta Municipalities conference, so I was part of the conversation that happened there. There is some concern. We heard last week, directly from the finance minister, careful what you’re asking for. You’re opening a Pandora’s box.

We’re not quite sure what that type of chatter means, but quite frankly, we know that can’t be good to hear comments like that already coming out from a resolution that just passed. But it isn’t something that was asked from the floor here or from our membership. We will be keeping a close eye on that. We always caution when we move forward with these ideas of what the unintended consequences are.

I don’t want to put too much fear out there, but there have been not so welcoming comments around that. We’ll be keeping a very, very close eye on that, because any changes that happen will affect our members and the rural municipalities within the province.

MH: There were probably quite a few new faces at your convention this year.

How much turnover has there been following the municipal elections, and what impact does that have on the trajectory of the RMA?

KW: We had about 34 per cent turnover within our 69 municipalities, which represent about 85 per cent of the land mass. It’s a little lower than it has been in the past, but just the same it means there are going to be changes around many tables.

While we’ve seen many councils stay intact, we’ve also seen entire councils completely replaced. There’s going to be a lot of differences across the rural landscape. The last couple of days gave us a little bit of a taste of some of the directions we’re heading. We had a number of resolutions passed here, so we’ve got some work to do.

We do meet quite regularly with our members. We have district meetings, one-on-one meetings with municipalities coming up. While we got a pretty good sense of what’s coming between now and our spring convention, that’s going to be an opportunity to see what more is going to shake out as we shape the future of rural Alberta and help the economic growth and prosperity I know we will see in the coming four years.

MH: When it comes to Alberta Municipalities, they just elected a new president, Grande Prairie Coun. Dylan Bressey.

How is the alignment between your two organizations, especially where dealings with the provincial government are concerned?

KW: Our two associations have always worked well together, especially when we’re aligned on similar issues. It’s nice to see a face that I personally have actually gotten to know over the years. President Bressey and I have both actually been on our respective boards for a number of years. Both elected officials too, for quite a few years. We’re not new to each other.

Actually, we had a few moments here at my convention just to sit down and have a chit chat about what the future is going to look like. I’m excited to work alongside the urban municipalities, especially where our issues are similar and the asks are the same. We also had a very respectful conversation that we know rural and urban, there are quite a few issues that divide us. I will handle those as respectfully as I can. It was a good conversation between the two of us. We are on the same page when it comes to the issues we need to respectfully represent our associations and work together when we can.