Extinguishing the May fire in St. Albert at the Citadel Mews seniors' complex required the assistance of several regional firefighting personnel, plus related equipment.
This great regional support occurs primarily due to the nature of humanity, and in the case of this fire, is also enabled by various mutual-aid agreements municipalities negotiate with their neighbours.
These agreements are regional and sub-regional. Numerous people, including elected officials across Alberta, heaped on praise for such regional thinking to assist with the fire, and rightfully so.
It begs the question: Where is the similar thinking for COVID-19 restrictions, laws, or relief?
Leaders from across Canada are calling upon their provinces to address such situations regionally, and yet it appears Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and the UCP Emergency Management Committee did not consider regional options, and instead defaulted to the municipal leaders to navigate through decisions one municipality at a time.
Municipal leaders across Alberta have had to create policies on the fly that are often different than their adjacent neighbours in the same region.
Regional thinking for COVID-19 policy was a missed opportunity. Opportunities for recognizing regionalism were simply ignored by the province.
Interestingly, however, to see Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw report on COVID-19 data regionally in Alberta, never by individual municipality.
We run ambulances regionally, have regional library organizations, have regional economic development entities, run transit by region, form sports teams by region, and plan municipal agreements regionally through Intermunicipal Collaboration Frameworks. We host powwows regionally, govern seniors’ complexes by region, and fight fires by region.
Regions matter more today during COVID than the days before the pandemic.
As more Alberta villages dissolve into their adjacent counties, and as we emerge from a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, it is more clear now than ever that Alberta needs a different view of governance.
For 18 months municipal leaders were confused by provincial political direction. The province had difficulties managing the municipal diversity of direction. Regions had no authority. School boards, which are regional, were essentially stripped of much of their power to make regional decisions.
In 1989 New Zealand began implementing their current governance structure. It is now a country of governance by regions – country-wide.
It is time Canada, and in particular Alberta, makes changes, otherwise municipalities will continue to behave like the young Oliver Twist, a character in the classic Charles Dickens novel, who holds out his hands, pleading, “Please sir, I want more.”
Municipalities will plead for more money forever under the current Alberta governance arrangement, and regional governance solutions are simply a better answer to assist in the solution.
New Zealand went through difficulties with their money issues at a time when municipalities were going broke, and solutions implemented then have proven that, 20 years later, the country is well-governed and prosperous.
It is time.
Nolan Crouse is a former St. Albert mayor.
