The Government of Alberta shuffled its cabinet this week, the former Minister of Municipal Affairs (Kaycee Madu) has become the Minister of Justice and MLA Tracy Allard from Grande Prairie is now the Minister of Municipal Affairs. We have enjoyed working with Minister Madu over the past year and a half and look forward to building on our progress with Minister Allard.
Progress continues on multiple advocacy priorities. Long-awaited consultations on the Municipal Government Act began this month with a focus on permit timelines, appeals, municipal / school reserves, and offsite levies. While the scope of these consultations was more limited than anticipated, there is potential for significant improvements for industry. We continue to push for more substantive changes, particularly on those related to levies. The finalized submissions to government will be circulated with membership in September.
We are actively engaged with government on the future of auto-adoption of the National Building Code. The basis of these discussions relates to our concerns of a broader politicization of codes at the federal level and a lack of Alberta-based cost-benefit analysis. While discussions remain in their early stages, we hope to have more information to present next month.
City Charters continue to be a growing challenge for industry. In addition to our longstanding concerns with offsite levy and inclusionary housing powers, the City of Edmonton has recently proposed introducing an Emissions Neutral Building Strategy that would expedite energy efficiency requirements. This strategy would effectively result in separate building code requirements with substantial implications on housing affordability. We have been engaging the Minister of Municipal Affairs on this issue and request formal clarity is provided to the City of Edmonton with regards to their authority as it relates to Building Code requirements and the private sector.
