Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her municipal affairs minister, Dan Williams, announced yesterday that their United Conservative Party Government will overrule Edmonton City Council’s infill housing policy, a decade in the making including three years of public engagement.
At a back-yard news conference in northeast Edmonton’s Newton neighbourhood, Ms. Smith and Mr. Williams said they are instructing the city to repeal its housing bylaw and put rules about housing types, density and height back the way they were in 2024, when city council changed them to make it easier to build more high-density infill housing inside the city’s borders.
Minimum on-site parking regulations must return to the requirements that were in place in the plague year 2020. The city has three months from today, to change policy. This isn’t a request. It’s an order.
Calgary will be getting new marching orders too, but they are somewhat less severe. “Calgary will maintain its current approach after recently repealing blanket rezoning and will be directed to create an overlay identifying lands restored to previous low-density residential zones,” said the government’s news release. “This ensures requirements for housing types, building heights and parking remain in place while its broader land-use review continues.”
Provincial meddling in municipal decisions is not unprecedented, but ordering a reversal of this nature and on this scale is extremely unusual.
Needless to say, the regional sprawl cabal of property developers close to the UCP will be delighted, as distant suburban suburbs are far more profitable to build and sell than inner-city infills intended to keep taxes down and address the housing crisis.
That said, some of the multi-unit infills that have been going up are pretty startling, and the UCP’s contempt for local democracy notwithstanding, this will be a popular decision for many residents who were concerned by the volume and quality of infill development in their communities.
There’s just enough truth to the government’s argument, in other words, to make it dangerous. So this could turn out to be an effective wedge for the UCP to wield against the NDP, led by a former mayor of Calgary, in the province’s big cities.
Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack clapped back, calling the UCP decision uninformed, insulting and likely to result in higher taxes. “I am not entirely convinced the premier knows what she is doing, or what the consequences will be,” he said at a news conference of his own later in the day.
But, really, what can he or anyone on Edmonton City Council do? Few governments may be as sensitive about their own jurisdiction as Alberta’s separatist-dominated UCP government, but the Canadian constitution makes cities a provincial responsibility, and if Edmonton Council doesn’t knuckle under, the gruesome twosome at yesterday’s newser, both of whom represent rural ridings, have to legal power to fire them all.
Mind you, if Edmonton city councillors have the cojones to call their bluff, the results could be interesting for the UCP. After all, it’s one thing to order municipal governments around, it’s quite another to have to take the rap yourself for your own bad decisions. This isn’t France, so don’t expect this to happen, though.
The city will be ordered “to carry out comprehensive reviews of their land use bylaws, engage in public consultation and work with industry to pursue a more balanced approach to high-density infill,” the news release said – in other words, pretty much what Edmonton’s been doing for the past decade.
Premier Smith and Minister Williams – both talented gas-lighters – framed their decision as being one of concern for the rights of homeowners. “We can build more homes without asking people to give up the things that make their neighbourhood a place they want to call home,” said the premier.
“This announcement is about restoring the possibility for Alberta to grow in a thoughtful and balanced way,” Mr. Williams said in dulcet tones. “It’s about giving Albertans a voice before their neighborhoods are permanently changed.”
Mr. Williams also insisted that the province isn’t dictating to the city what it has to do. “This direction provides an opportunity for municipalities pause, reset and create stronger communities that grow responsibly without dividing neighbours.” In other words, do as we say, or else!
From the perspective of the UCP, this is also an effective distraction from the bitter division throughout the province caused by the premier’s irresponsible effort to placate the separatist minority that dominates her party by proceeding with a separation referendum on Oct. 19, its ongoing attack on public health care, corruption, and general administrative incompetence.
But say what you will about the UCP’s competence at governing, they sure know how to create a massive distraction!
Indeed, the announcement seems to have pushed an earlier news conference by Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi, who attacked the government for letting ministers hit the road for exotic destinations in the lead-up to the separation referendum, right off the day’s news lineup.
“This is the time to be strengthening ties within our own country, rallying support for Canada, knocking on doors and getting people out to vote to stay in Canada,” Mr. Nenshi said at his morning news conference. “Instead, the UCP is jet-setting to Vegas to promote gambling and traveling to Sweden and Denmark to study health care privatization.”
Five UCP ministers have been on the road in recent days or still are, a feisty Mr. Nenshi pointed out. Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally was in Las Vegas from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1; Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration Minister Joseph Schow left for Mexico and Texas on Sept. 27 and returned on Wednesday; Tourism Minister Andrew Boitchenko left for Mexico City on Sept. 28 and is scheduled to return to Alberta today; Arts, Culture and Status of Women Minister Tanya Fir left for Scotland, Ireland and England on Oct. 4 and is scheduled to return next Tuesday; and Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange left for Sweden and Denmark on Oct. 2 and is scheduled to return tomorrow.
All of them were conducting business at least some of the time obviously thought by the UCP to be more important than defending Canada.