Alberta’s Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver announced the latest proposed regulations for Bill 20, the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, set to take effect on Oct. 31, almost a year ahead of the 2025 municipal elections.
The Act, tabled during the spring 2024 legislative session, permits local political parties, sets campaign expense limits, expands special ballot use, and bans electronic tabulators. Rules and processes for scrutineers are clarified in the Act, and municipalities can require criminal checks for local candidates.
The province previously promised to amend some of Bill’s aspects after pushback.
“My ministry has been hard at work over the summer consulting and developing these regulations. We’ve been consulting with municipalities and stakeholders on the regulations in the bill, including Alberta municipalities, rural municipalities of Alberta, and mid-size city mayors,” said McIver. “I believe that municipalities will see much of their feedback reflected in these regulations.”
However, McIver later clarified that while his government will take feedback from everybody, the changes aren’t intended for people getting elected but for the five million Albertans voting who want more accountable and transparent elections. He added that the changes aim to help voters make more informed decisions.
Local political parties will be first tested in the Oct. 2025 municipal elections in Calgary and Edmonton. Candidates will also be able to register in slates. Neither parties nor slates can be formally affiliated with provincial or federal political parties, nor can they receive donations from such parties. They cannot have names or acronyms that resemble such parties.
While political parties will only be able to register in Edmonton and Calgary for the 2025 municipal elections, the provincial government will review the process and determine whether it should be extended to other municipalities or terminated.
Local candidates are not required to join political parties or slates to run for office.
Candidates can register as either slates or local parties. Local parties must have 1,000 members and field candidates in at least one-third of the municipality’s seats.
“We want political parties, if and when they form, to be legitimate and do the work of engaging their communities on local issues,” said McIver.
Therefore, to run in Calgary or Edmonton, with 15 and 13 seats, respectively, a local political party would need to have candidates run in at least five wards.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith previously defended Bill 20, saying it could stop non-citizens from voting.
The new regulations establish campaign expense limits tied to municipal populations. Mayoral candidates can spend $1 per person based on the population of their municipality, while councillor candidates’ limits are the same but based on average ward populations.
McIver noted that there will be a minimum baseline amount of $20,000 for campaigns in municipalities with less than 20,000 residents.
“We are using the local population as our guiding principle for expense limits, tying them to municipal populations so they automatically adjust as the population changes over time,” McIver said.
Third-party advertisers face a $0.50 per-person cap, while local parties can spend $1 per person in each ward based on the average population of all wards in the municipality for each ward the party has candidates running in.
In non-election years, the limits are $0.50 per person or $10,000, whichever is greater. However, candidates and local political parties cannot incur expenses during the two subsequent years after an election year. Operational expenses for local political parties, like office maintenance and staff salaries, will still be permitted during this “cooling-off period.”
“The overall purpose of the expense limits regulation is to ensure elected officials focus on governance and keep the campaign activities focused on the year leading up to and the year of an election,” McIver stated.
Because Bill 20 prohibits using automated voting equipment, including electronic tabulators, in local elections, votes will be hand-counted.
McIver cited a Leger poll, which showed that over one-third of Albertans oppose using electronic tabulators. Some legacy media attacked him, suggesting the poll proves that two-thirds of Albertans did support them; however, this is not true. Based on the same poll, only 36% of Albertans supported using them, 1% more than the 35% opposed.
“What’s most important is that the day after the election, that hopefully as close to 100% of Albertans as possible respect and trust the results that are reported and consequently respect the people put in place to make decisions on their behalf,” said McIver. “That’s pretty important to our democracy.”
Bill 20’s regulations will take effect on Oct. 31, 2024, with property tax provisions effective Jan. 1, 2025. The next municipal elections in Alberta are set for Oct. 20, 2025.