Do Calgary and Edmonton need more power and resources?

Over at the web site of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, I’ve written a blog post titled “Do Calgary and Edmonton need more power and resources?” The blog post comes as the Government of Alberta considers the possibility of, well, giving more power and sources to both Calgary and Edmonton.

Points raised in the blog post include the following:

-While most of Canada’s large cities would like to see amendments to Canada’s constitution giving municipalities more power and authority, they tend to take a more pragmatic approach.  Indeed, they often lobby the federal government for more funding, and provincial governments for legislative changes.

-Though the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton have lobbied their provincial government for more power and resources, there are reasons to call into question the wisdom of such a move.  For example, both municipal governments in question have seen major increases in their respective property tax bases in recent years (ergo: it’s not entirely clear why they don’t simply increase property taxes if they wish to generate additional revenue).

The link to the full blog post is here.