To improve reporting on resolution advocacy, the RMA is releasing a monthly bulletin highlighting recent actions undertaken on select active resolutions.
The Monthly Resolution Update Bulletin is a way of routinely highlighting a selection of the over 70 currently active resolutions, offering members a more detailed insight into the work being carried out on their behalf. For the latest formal statuses and reactions to all resolutions, view the RMA’s Resolutions Database.
The July 2025 edition of the Monthly Resolution Update Bulletin features the following resolutions:
Resolution 9-25S: Water and Wastewater System Funding
Rural municipalities often lack the financial capacity to address water and wastewater infrastructure concerns in their local communities. Without significant support from provincial or federal programs, many of these concerns with water and wastewater infrastructure will remain or worsen as the infrastructure ages. Exacerbating these concerns, existing water and wastewater funding programs are less accessible for rural communities as the qualification criteria is often population based – a criteria not suitable for rural areas that often habitat communities that are widely spaced or established with a focus on industry developments.
RMA recently determined that the total cost to restore rural municipal water and wastewater infrastructure to sustainable and fiscally responsible levels would be a one-time investment of approximately $310 million. While the Water for Life (W4L) grant program has been a relatively consistent stream of provincial funding for water and wastewater infrastructure repair and restoration for rural municipalities, W4L funding allocations from the GOA have not reached the necessary ambition. W4L provides a mere $50 million through 2024-25, and another promised $51.3 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year for all rural municipalities.
Resolution 9-25S calls upon the GOA to both increase available funding and expand the eligibility requirements for W4L to ensure that all rural communities receive the necessary funding to address current concerns with aging water and wastewater infrastructure. RMA has communicated these concerns to the Ministry of Transportation and Economic Corridors (TEC) and expects an official response promptly. RMA expects TEC to recognize the growing concerns associated with an aging water infrastructure; RMA is and will continue to advocate for appropriate funding levels and qualification criteria for rural water and wastewater infrastructure.
Resolution 13-23S: Municipal Access to Open Data
To promote municipal autonomy and enable informed decision-making, municipalities often advocate for increased access to Open Data. Resolution 13-23S highlights the many barriers to Open Data access that rural municipalities must navigate as well as the alternative approaches rural municipalities have been required to implement in order to ensure Open Data access. While these points demonstrate the resourcefulness of municipalities, this resolution also highlights the support that municipalities require from the Government of Alberta to minimize obstacles in the first place.
The Government of Alberta’s response and subsequent actions have been encouraging: Alberta Technology and Innovation continues to prioritize Open Data access – in Budget 2025, $7.5 million was allocated to support to support data driven decisions and innovation. The Government response also highlights the work of organizations like Alberta Innovates which provides funding across various programs such as agri-food, bio-industrial innovation as well as academia and research.
More recently, the work of RMA’s Wildfire Working Group (WWG) has culminated in a final report containing a series of recommendations to support wildfire management outside the Forest Protection Area. Recommendation 11 of the report calls on the provincial and federal governments to enable more access to fuel inventory and fire behavior data to municipalities to support wildfire response. Enabling open access to wildfire data supports municipal decision-making during critical stages of wildfire management, particularly wildfire response and preparedness. RMA has corresponded with various provincial ministries on this recommendation and intends to help further support municipal access to open data by utilizing the engagement opportunities prompted by the work of the WWG.
Resolution 7-24S: Establishing a Provincial Level of Service for Emergency Social Services
This resolution called on the Government of Alberta to introduce a level of service that clearly outlined which services host municipalities were required to provide to evacuee’s from outside of their jurisdiction and to direct municipalities to bill each other for providing these services using a fee for service funding model. In May 2025, the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) released the Alberta Emergency Social Services (ESS) Framework. It will be included as an annex of the Alberta Emergency Plan. The new framework has replaced the 2016 Provincial Emergency Social Services Framework. The updated ESS Framework includes an introduction to ESS and the document’s scope, how ESS functions within the broader emergency management and response context, local service delivery programs, ESS delivery including different stakeholders and municipal, First Nations, and provincial governments responsibilities.
In many regards, the updated report addresses member concerns. For instance:
- The framework provides much more attention to and demonstrates an understanding that rural municipalities routinely host residents from outside of their jurisdiction
- It differentiates between required and optional services, while leaving municipalities discretion to determine what is a requirement for a specific evacuation
- It provides some recommendations around prices to be included in the fee for service model, and provides templates to support pre-determine price agreements with municipalities likely to host evacuees from your municipality
RMA staff were in the midst of developing a report on the resolution when the updated framework was released. This work will be repackaged and shared with the Government of Alberta to thank them for their updated report and express RMAs recommendations to continue to consider the rural municipal perspective in future updates. In particular, RMA would like:
- To be consulted prior to the next framework update
- To see more financial and other support for municipal Emergency Social Service planning and training from the Government of Alberta
- For the Government of Alberta to commit to regularly update the framework and any recommended financial considerations
- And to think critically about which order of government should pay for essential Emergency Social Services
Stay tuned for future editions of the Monthly Resolution Update Bulletin, where we will continue to feature updates on selected resolutions.
Warren Noga
Manager of Policy and Research
825.319.2285
warren@rmalberta.com