Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen says he hopes any costs that come with proposed changes to the Local Authorities Election Act and the Municipal Government Act don’t fall on Lethbridge residents.
The proposed legislation from the province would eliminate electronic vote counting for municipal elections, allow the province to remove mayors and councillors from office and give power to the province to change municipal bylaws.
“We are diving deep into this – it is a surprise to many of us,” Hyggen says, adding he was up late into the night trying to understand the many changes. “Lots of questions out there, lots of frustration. We do want to hear more. It is first reading…that gets it one the table however when second reading comes, we are hoping that there’s a lot of conversation prior to passing of a second or third reading.”
The legislation also proposes allowing political parties on a municipal level. Hyggen says he and other mayors knew changes were coming, but he was surprised at how many are proposed.
He says the changes could pose challenges for the city, which runs on a four-year budget cycle. “We haven’t budgeted for this so what this cost is going to be in 2025, when the municipal elections are in – we don’t know what that cost is going to be.”
He adds he hopes the province would take on the cost associated with hand-counting votes. City clerk Bonnie Hilford says the city has used electronic tabulators for decades in elections.
“The last time votes were hand counted here was in 1989. The proposed change back to this method would possibly require the production of an Electors’ Register, which may require another new municipal census, as well additional paid staff in the lead-up to and on Election Day,” Hilford says. “The potential costs and extra staff that may be associated with these proposed changes is something that will need to be explored and better understood,” says Hilford. “Our aim is to understand how these changes by the province could have a direct impact to the local taxpayer.”
Hyggen says he wants the province to stay in its lane when it comes to bylaws and leave decision making to people who are on the community.
“A land use bylaw should be municipal jurisdiction,” he says. “That is something that our community, the input for the community – the people that live here should have that input into a land use bylaw. Tougher to have it from a provincial level is those folks are not part of the community, so I think as we are all aware municipalities – we are closest to the people.”