2023 Year in Review
Review President Tyler Gandam's year-end message
2023 was a particularly busy time for all of us, as Alberta’s recovery from the pandemic continued, Albertans resumed their usual activities and the provincial economy began to thrive. We are proud to have made strides in key areas of advocacy. From elevating issues that are most important to our members to reacting to initiatives coming from the provincial government, we are a strong voice and advocate for our members.
We remain dedicated to creating value for members. Whether we are establishing new and innovative products like Power+, hosting our Annual Convention & Trade Show which attracts more than 1100 municipal leaders, or investing in improved technology to better serve our Insurance & Risk Services clients, our commitment to our members is present in every facet of our work.
Infrastructure Funding
Infrastructure funding has been a long-standing top issue of ours. In 2023, we kept this issue in the forefront through drawing greater public attention to it at our 2023 Spring Municipal Leaders’ Caucus and talking about the serious funding gap throughout the 2023 provincial election and post-election ‘It’s Time to Talk’ and ‘Let’s Talk About Infrastructure’ public information campaigns.
We continue to call on the provincial government to increase the base Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) funding amount from $722 million a year to $1.75 billion a year.
The Future of Municipal Government (FOMG) project
The Future of Municipal Government (FOMG) project, which is a partnership between ABmunis and the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, saw another four discussion papers published in 2023. Seven FOMG discussion papers have been published so far.
To date, the main finding of FOMG is that intermunicipal collaboration is key to building thriving communities. Intermunicipal collaboration was discussed at length at our President’s Summit in March 2023, and these discussions informed ABmunis’ Recommendations on the Future of Intermunicipal Collaboration. These recommendations will guide our ongoing work with the Government of Alberta and other municipal associations to support greater collaboration.
Highlights from other key advocacy initiatives
In 2023, we made significant progress on issues that are important to us.
- We focused on bringing our members’ top three issues – Community Building, Community Safety and Community Healthcare – to the attention of political parties, candidates, and regular Albertans during and following the 2023 provincial general election.
- To build thriving communities, we continue to call on the provincial government to increase the base Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) funding amount from $722 million a year to $1.75 billion a year.
- Our advocacy efforts on the issues of policing and public safety took place throughout 2023. While the provincial government hasn’t ruled out the creation of an Alberta Provincial Police Service (APPS), it appears to have placed the idea on the ‘back burner’ for now, adding more Sheriffs instead. Alberta Municipalities’ board of directors believes our advocacy efforts on this issue over the past few years have paid off, but we will continue to closely watch the situation in 2024.
- Community healthcare continues to be a ‘top of mind’ issue for our members. In late November, ABmunis welcomed the news that nurse practitioners will be expanding their role in Alberta’s healthcare system in early 2024. The news, aligns with our 2023 resolution on the Integration of Nurse Practitioners into the Alberta Healthcare System.
- We worked closely with the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (ARMA) on the critical issue of EPR in 2023. Through newsletter articles, web articles and online seminars, we communicated vital information and deadlines to members.
Our commitment to member engagement
One of our key priorities is bringing members together to foster meaningful connections. We believe that together, we can gain real ground.
We are thankful for the many opportunities we had in 2023 to build connections between members and engage in meaningful conversations with municipal leaders.
