Keep away from wokeness and DEI, new minister warns municipalities

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and former Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Dan Williams stand together during the swearing in of her cabinet, in Edmonton, Friday, June 9, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson.

Major municipalities should steer clear of creating drug injection sites, licensing body rub parlours and banning plastic straws, says the first municipal affairs minister from rural Alberta since January 2021.

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Using terms like woke and DEI, Dan Williams said municipalities of every size and type should concentrate on services taxpayers deserve and expect.

“I want to make sure that Edmonton and Calgary are doing their jobs. There’s not a left-wing and a right-wing way to plow a road or deliver water or treat wastewater. These are just the obligations of municipalities,” he told The Macleod Gazette.

“But if they start veering into plastic straw bans and DEI policies and legalizing business licenses for brothels, then they’re way off base from the responsibility of a municipality,” said Williams, the member for Peace River and the former minister of mental health and addiction.

Urban centres receive heavy investment from the province because it makes economic sense to centralize services like specialized health care.

“We know we can’t have tertiary care and all sorts of high-level care in every rural town. But we need to make sure that these big-city centres are working for rural residents as well as urban residents,” said Williams.

The elimination of programs deemed DEI, which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, has become a major policy thrust under the Trump presidency. Those against DEI say it discriminates against people whose identities don’t fall into certain categories, resulting in under-qualified members of minorities getting seats in universities or employment positions.

But those in favour of DEI say it helps calibrate institutions to community demographics, empower under-represented voices and perspectives, and correct an opportunity imbalance.

Edmonton and Calgary both licence body rub parlours and practitioners, escorts and exotic dancers.

Plastics bans or restrictions, meanwhile, are in place in at least eight Alberta municipalities.

If big municipalities “stay in their lanes, do their jobs and do them well, I have no interest in getting involved,” said Williams, who was first elected under the UCP banner in the 2019 general election.

“But if they’re way off in left field, making up all sorts of problems that don’t exist instead of paying attention to the urgent needs of their residents and of all Albertans as hubs, community centres and commercial centres for the entire province, then the province is going to step in.”

Calling himself the first “truly rural” MLA in the UCP’s young history to lead municipal affairs, Williams hails from the tiny hamlet of La Crête about seven hours north of Edmonton by car.

Tracy Allard of Grande Prairie was the UCP minister from August 2020 to January 2021. After her came two ministers from Calgary ridings, including Ric McIver, who recently moved to the speaker’s chair.

Williams said big cities should continue to get proper attention, but not at the expense of strategic growth in rural Alberta.

“We need to make sure our rural communities continue to compete with big centres for direct investment so they can continue to be wonderful places to raise a family, to grow a business, to play and to enjoy.”

Rural communities drive much of the economy, from resource development to agri-food to farming to forestry.

“We need to make sure they are viable and sustainable, that we have the ability to attract growth in our rural communities,” Williams said.

“That landscape is what brings so much of our advantage in Alberta, what brings us the prosperity we need. So we need to make sure that we’re planning for another century of economic boom in Alberta and creating the environment that allows for that.”

Sharing wealth is “part of the grand bargain of Alberta,” he said, with rural areas depending on city services and cities depending on the wealth from natural resources in rural areas. “We have to be able to develop those resources responsibly and thoughtfully, and you’re also going to need to invest in those communities. This is how Canada was built.”

He continued: “The idea is that we have an obligation as a society to be reasonable about how we deliver services to all corners of the country, and that includes within our province.”

Williams juxtaposed spending on a maternity and community care centre in “my hometown, way up north” with mental health supports in Medicine Hat and major urban health services like the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton.

“We know we need to have those (major health facilities) centred in our big centres, because there’s a high level of technical ability that we need to have there. But what we can reasonably have in our rural communities, we need to continue to plan for, and this government gets that.”

Premier Danielle Smith tweaked her cabinet in mid-May after the legislature elected Ric McIver to the speaker’s position. McIver, the member for Calgary-Hays, served as municipal affairs minister from January 2021 to October 2022, and again from June 2023 to May 2025.

His last stint in the ministry was marked with several controversial moves, including the removal of municipally created codes of conduct, the elimination of electronic tabulating in municipal elections, and the establishment of provisions allowing the province to revoke or revise bylaws that contravene the Constitution or provincial statues.

Critics said the government didn’t thoroughly consult municipalities before introducing many of the changes. In the case of electronic tabulation, the government was appeasing a contingent of voters aligned with Donald Trump and his unproven stolen election claims, they said.

Williams didn’t offer specifics about legislation to expect during his tenure at the helm of Municipal Affairs. Amendments and updates to the Municipal Government Act will continue, though.

“I can’t speak to anything in particular, but a big focus of mine is going to be making sure we have attractive investment climate for rural Alberta,” he reiterated.

“A big push for me is going to make sure that our big urban centres are doing their job representing their ratepayers and all Albertans by staying in their lane and doing the very important and hard work that takes to run a big international city like Edmonton or Calgary.”

George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Macleod Gazette