WHEREAS the Aggregate Resource Development Task Force was created to propose solutions to issues of mutual concern to the aggregate industry and Alberta municipalities;AND WHEREAS the Task Force consists of representative of municipalities, the sand and gravel industry, road construction companies, and the Province of Alberta;AND WHEREAS the Task Force is considering a number of approaches to improve the relationship between municipalities and the aggregate industry;AND WHEREAS the Task Force has determined that one positive solution would be a transparent monetary contribution, on a per-tonne basis, from a gravel pit operator to an affected municipality;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties urge the Province of Alberta to implement the creation of a Community Aggregate Payment (CAP) as recommended by the Aggregate Resource Development Task Force.

The Aggregate Resource Development Task Force was created in early 2002 in response to concerns by municipal governments and the aggregate industry over the loss of this essential non-renewable resource to sterilization. Sterilization of an aggregate deposit usually occurs when community growth into the area of the deposit makes development of the resource undesirable to the ratepayer of the community affected by the proposed operation, and development permits are denied.Discussion of these concerns with the Minister of Municipal Affairs resulted in a strong suggestion that the industry and municipal governments should seek solutions to the problem that would not involve intervention by the province. The Aggregate Resource Development Task Force was created to respond to this challenge. The Task Force is made up of representatives from AAMDC, the Alberta Sand and Gravel Association and the Alberta Roadbuilders Association, and is receiving advice from Alberta Municipal Affairs, Alberta Transportation and Alberta Environment.Since its inception, the Task Force has produced a number of initiatives that are aimed at making the extraction of the material more acceptable to the community affected. It has developed guidelines for pit operations that will ensure minimum disruption to the community while preventing the loss of the resource to sterilization, and is suggesting a method of generating revenue to compensate for those disruptions.A community located near an aggregate operation is often subject to disruptions of its lifestyle that make such operations undesirable in the minds of the ratepayers and which are not offset by increased tax revenue from the operation.The Task Force has developed a concept known as the Community Aggregate Payment (CAP) that would see each operation pay a levy against the material produced to the municipality that issued the permit. The revenue derived could then be distributed to the community or communities affected by the operation in any manner agreed to by the municipal council.

The AAMDC has no resolutions currently in effect with respect to this issue. Resolution 18-93F, endorsed by delegates to the Fall 1993 Convention, called for legislative amendments to authorize municipalities to levy taxes on gravel operations within their boundaries; however this resolution lapsed in 1998.