ABmunis encouraging Albertans to complete surveys and help shape local governments
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Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis) is encouraging all eligible Albertans to take 20 minutes out of their busy lives in the next two weeks to have their say on how politics at the local level will be conducted in the province.
Director Andrew Knack (Cities over 500,000) spoke on behalf of ABmunis’ Board of Directors at an online media event held Thursday. ABmunis officials say he echoed Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver’s recent call to action, encouraging all eligible Albertans to complete surveys on the Local Authorities Elections Act (LAEA) and Municipal Government Act (MGA) and tell the provincial government how it can strengthen local democracy in Alberta.
“The last time the Government of Alberta conducted similar surveys — in 2020 — it received about 4,000 responses,” said Knack. “That’s a very low response rate, considering the population of Alberta hovered around 4.4 million at the time.”
Many of ABmunis’ members say they are concerned that the introduction of political parties to local elections could lead to greater divisiveness within municipal governments. Others worry that a growing number of Albertans could be ineligible to vote in local elections because they lack home addresses or government-issued identification.
