CTV News Edmonton has reported:

Alberta says it has the authority to require Edmonton to change its high-density housing bylaws, after Premier Danielle Smith announced Thursday morning that the city has three months to return its infill rules to pre-2024 standards. The province says the intervention responds to homeowners’ concerns about housing types, density and building heights. Critics say the move intrudes on municipal decision-making.

The authority comes from the Municipal Government Act, which gives the province power over areas including industry, development and building codes. Section 694 specifically allows Alberta to direct a municipal government to amend its land-use bylaws.

Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack called the decision an “ultimatum.” He said it was made hastily and without sufficient information, and described it as an “overreach” of provincial power. Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams said the province can step in when residents believe their concerns are not being heard.

“There is a reality that we need housing that is not only built responsibly, but also respects neighbourhoods that they’re in,” Williams told reporters at a press conference in Edmonton. He said the pace and scale of the changes had affected neighbourhoods and disregarded the communities where new development was occurring.

“It’s too much, too fast, and it’s changing the dynamic of our neighbourhoods and disregarding the communities that they’re entering,” Williams said. He described the province’s aim as restoring the “right balance” to discussions about infill, with residents and both levels of government involved, adding that it was “not an ultimatum, but a conversation.”

University of Alberta political scientist Jared Wesley said the province is legally within its rights, but the political context makes the intervention more contentious. Edmonton has no governing United Conservative Party MLAs, he said. “A lot of right-wing governments across Canada are finding themselves at odds with progressive city councils, and this is another example of that,” Wesley told CTV News Edmonton.

Wesley noted that Edmonton’s current zoning bylaws were approved by city council and reaffirmed after an election in which most councillors campaigned on the post-2024 plan. “This is a clear case of the provincial government wading into municipal decisions, something that they’re allowed to do. But I think citizens, particularly in Edmonton, are right to ask if they should be doing so.”

The province has previously moved to influence municipal affairs, Wesley said. Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen plans to introduce legislation this fall concerning bike lanes in Edmonton and Calgary. It could require impact assessments and allow infrastructure to be removed if it does not meet provincial standards, but Dreeshen has disclosed few details. Any such action would affect Edmonton’s ongoing discussions as it works on new bike-lane projects.

Wesley called Thursday’s intervention “the first time that we’ve seen a provincial government step in and threaten to withdraw a bylaw of this nature, of this magnitude.” He said the Smith government faced a difficult path to winning Edmonton seats in the last provincial election and that the decision could make that harder. “I don’t see how this makes the Smith government more popular in a city that they’re already massively unpopular in.”

Williams said the province was offering a “light touch” of guidance rather than diminishing Edmonton’s autonomy. He also rejected claims that returning to pre-2024 standards would undo municipal plans as a “narrow, pigeonholing false dichotomy.” “There are many versions of densification that are gentle, that are thoughtful, that are done in a balanced way.” The report included contributions from CTV News Edmonton’s Brittany Ekelund and Chelan Skulski.