Municipalities are tasked with fostering the well-being of the environment. This includes environmental considerations related to land-use planning, water management, climate change, industry development and managing growth responsibly.
What is RMA’s position on the importance of having a municipal perspective related to the environment?
Environmental responsibility in Alberta includes consideration of impacts on air, land, water, and biodiversity. Municipalities play a key role in front-line environmental management to provide healthy communities for citizens.
Municipalities are responsible for land-use planning decisions which take into consideration the environmental impacts of growth, industry activities, development or land-use changes, as well as land-use decisions where water bodies and wetlands are a factor.
Municipalities play a role in managing water systems that impact residents, the environment, and industry. This role is especially important during times of drought.
Municipalities are active participants in programs that aim to reduce climate change impacts and value the opportunity to be involved in partnerships, such as the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC).
Municipalities respond to severe weather events related to water (e.g. drought or flooding) that have short-term safety and long-term economic, environmental and social impacts.
Regulatory tools such as environmental reserves and conservation reserves provide municipalities with the ability to balance local development with the protection of environmentally sensitive lands.
What financial considerations do rural municipalities have with respect to the environment?
Municipalities strive to find a balance between being responsible environmental stewards and ensuring their communities are safe and vibrant.
The construction or re-development of municipal infrastructure typically requires an environmental impact assessment. Municipalities must evaluate whether the sometimes very high cost of conducting such an assessment is proportional to the projected value of the infrastructure.
Industrial development that provides economic benefits to rural municipalities may also have significant environmental impacts. Municipalities must be engaged in industrial development and planning processes to weigh short-term benefits against possible long-term concerns.
Municipalities that hold dispositions on Crown land have demonstrated excellent stewardship of the land. RMA encourages the Government of Alberta to remove the requirement for municipalities to provide security to receive Crown land dispositions as Alberta Environment and Protected Areas has alternate means of ensuring Crown lands are satisfactorily reclaimed following the cancellation of a disposition.
Water and wastewater infrastructure is costly and competes with the other priorities in municipalities. Adequate funding needs to be put into place to ensure that Alberta’s rural municipalities and rural residents are guaranteed equitable access to safe and secure water.
Current funding for water and wastewater infrastructure does not reflect the unique needs of rural Alberta including delivering water to small growth areas or accessing regional water lines.
Delays in the application process for Water Act approvals can delay municipal projects and prevent work on critical community infrastructure during Alberta’s relatively short construction season.
What collaborative relationships are essential to rural municipalities in relation to the environment?
Environmental stewardship requires effective communication between municipalities, Indigenous communities, the provincial and federal governments, industry, citizens, and other stakeholders.
Effective collaboration requires clear, specific roles. Decision makers must acknowledge and work with municipalities in their role as a primary authority regarding local environmental stewardship.
Where compliance with provincial and federal legislation requires specific expertise not typically available within municipalities, the regulating government should not download those roles to municipalities.
To promote sound environmental stewardship, it is necessary to have coordinated legislation and jurisdiction to protect water bodies and the environmentally sensitive areas adjacent to them.
RMA participates on numerous multi-stakeholder committees to promote environmentally conscious and sustainable practices and programs (ex. Agricultural Services Boards, Alberta Water Council, Clean Air Strategic Alliance, Agri-Environmental Partnership of Alberta).
Water is a limited resource in high demand by multiple stakeholders including municipalities and industry. Effective communication and coordination between stakeholders is essential to enhancing effective water management practices.
Throughout the first half of 2025, RMA advocated on behalf of members in the Water Availability Engagement put on by Environment and Protected Areas, which considered amendments to the Water Act and other changes to the water licensing regime in Alberta.
During times of extreme drought, the RMA supports municipalities working with other water users to develop water-sharing agreements. The RMA’s role as an observer to these water-sharing agreements is intended to monitor the status of water shortage and drought in high-risk regions and advocate on behalf of members as necessary.
How does the work of RMA support environmentally sustainable practices?
Protecting the environment, including Alberta’s rivers, lakes, wetlands and groundwater is an important priority for municipalities.
RMA positions itself to have a role in initiatives focused on environmentally sustainable practices (ex. Alberta Water Council, Clean Air Strategic Alliance).
RMA is a partner of the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC) which provides funding, technical assistance, and education to support Alberta municipalities in addressing climate change.
RMA co-chairs the Drought and Excessive Moisture Advisory Group, which provides input to the Government of Alberta on how to prevent, mitigate, and respond to water-related disasters such as floods and droughts.
RMA is a member of the multi-stakeholder Drought Advisory Committee formed by the Government of Alberta in 2024 and works to provide input representing the unique needs of rural municipalities in times of severe drought.
What current environment-related issues are impacting rural Alberta?
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
EPR systems are valuable in shifting the physical and financial burden of collecting, sorting, processing, and recycling waste to the producer and away from municipal governments and taxpayers.
For an EPR system to be effective, the unique needs of rural municipalities need to be reflected in partnerships with producers and regulators.
The implementation of EPR must not increase municipal costs, as the intent is to shift the cost of managing materials from municipalities to the producers of those products.
As EPR formally launched in Alberta on April 1, 2025, RMA will continue to monitor the rollout to identify any gaps that are causing concerns for RMA members.
Collaboration between the Alberta Recycling Management Authority, Alberta Environment and Protected Areas, producers, and municipalities is essential to the successful execution of EPR systems throughout the province.
Ecosystem Management and Land Development
A strong regulatory framework that includes a zero tolerance for aquatic invasive species is needed in Alberta and across western Canada. Taking a proactive approach to implementing preventative measures will protect Alberta’s aquatic environment from these invasive species.
While rural municipalities appreciate that protection of critical habitat and species under the federal Species at Risk Act is needed, where appropriate, municipalities and landowners should be fairly compensated for loss of use of land for economic purposes, such as agriculture or industry activities, resulting from sterilization where critical habitats are identified.
In aligning activities with the Alberta Wetland Policy, rural municipalities are experiencing delayed approvals resulting in increased costs and incomplete infrastructure projects, impacting safety to residents. Improvements need to be made to Water Act approvals and the Wetland Replacement Program to expedite and simplify the approval process while maintaining municipal participation.
Interested landowners seeking to enter into conservation easements or agreements must have options including term agreements and payment for ecosystem services. The Government of Alberta is responsible for ensuring these options remain available to landowners.
Flood and Drought Mitigation
All land-use planning at the municipal level should consider possible environmental impacts, including the potential for flooding and drought mitigation.
Flooding in different areas of the province has resulted in the ongoing development of legislative changes for land-use planning in flood prone areas. Municipalities recognize the importance of avoiding flood-prone areas, these formalized changes need to be monitored for impacts and unintended consequences.
Flood mapping data has been shared by the Government of Alberta (GOA) with municipalities, however, it is not clear what steps municipalities are expected to take. The GOA needs to provide instructions to municipalities on if and how to use the data provided to them.
Water security is increasingly an important issue in Alberta and collaboration between municipalities and government is essential to develop alternative solutions for constructing additional water reservoir storage capacities for buffering flood events and to retain water during periods of shortage.
Flood and drought mitigation efforts are timely and needed but must involve local governments and comprehensive consultation. Continued support for provincial initiatives such as the Watershed Resiliency and Restoration Program enable efforts that contribute to environmental health and encourage forward-thinking approaches to non-structural mitigation.
Drought events can have devastating impacts on industries that rely on healthy soil moisture amounts, such as agriculture and forestry. Consistent communication between all levels of government, agriculture and forestry producers and other stakeholders is essential to provide timely information and solutions during these events.
RMA supports multi-stakeholder approaches involving consistent communication and transparency to address severe drought and acute water shortage circumstances.
RMA recognizes that various strategies for drought mitigation exist, including water retention and transboundary water management. RMA will continue to advocate and collaborate with key stakeholders to ensure that Alberta retains its share of the South Saskatchewan River and other water bodies across the province.
Water Availability, Inter-Basin Transfers, and Temporary Diversion Licenses
Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (EPA) has conducted engagements related to water availability and amendments to the Water Act. At a high level, RMA supports changes to Alberta’s Water Act that increase water availability, administrative efficiency, and ensure license holders’ access to water is maintained, as long as local circumstances such as precipitation or moisture levels are taken into account by decision makers or Directors.
Without strong rationale, substantive evidence, and thorough and specific engagement with rural municipalities, RMA does not support changes to Alberta’s inter-basin transfer regime, such as the consolidation of river basins or the introduction of lower risk categories of transfers. Until such rationale or evidence is presented by Environment and Protected Areas (EPA) or direction is received by members, RMA will continue to support the requirement for a special Act of the Legislature to authorize inter-basin transfers.
The industrial holders of temporary diversion licenses (TDLs) should not be able to draw their full allotment during municipally declared water shortages or times of low flow or drought, in which municipalities and other water users are instituting water restrictions.
RMA supports TDLs being managed in a way that accounts for local precipitation, flow conditions, and water availability to ensure that local water users and license holders are not adversely affected by TDLs.
Indigenous Consultation
RMA requests that the Government of Alberta produce clear guidelines for municipalities in relation to the Government of Alberta’s First Nations and Métis Consultation Policies. These guidelines should identify clear roles for municipal, provincial, and federal governments, and First Nations, and Métis groups. Effective consultation requires clear roles.
Within the consultation process, RMA recognizes the value that the Government of Alberta and Government of Canada are placing on traditional ecological knowledge held by Indigenous peoples. By building relationships with Indigenous neighbours, municipalities will have access to this essential information about the environment through Indigenous perspectives, thus resulting in greater understanding between Indigenous groups and municipalities.
