Alberta-British Columbia boundary changes would be easier under proposed bill
Just when you think a provincial boundary is set in stone, the geological whims of the Rocky Mountains have other ideas.
Laws dating as far back as 1866 say the mountainous portion of the Alberta-British Columbia boundary is determined by how the water flows — eastward into Alberta, or westward into B.C.
Erosion, landslides and other natural processes nudge the provincial dividing line all the time. But changing the description of the border on paper is a slog, with even a slight tweak necessitating a referendum in Alberta.
Now, the Alberta government is trying to do away with that requirement, proposing a bill in the legislature Wednesday that would eliminate the need for a boundary change referendum.
“Obviously, we’re not talking about a significant carving up of the border,” Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally said at a news conference in Edmonton. “That still would fall under the Constitution, and a referendum will be required.”
Nally’s ministry is tasked with axing or simplifying laws and regulations that put bureaucratic hurdles in the way of people accomplishing what should be straightforward paperwork.
The bill would allow the provinces to draw a straight-line “conventional” border in small areas where the landscape is in flux, but a business wants clarity about which province they’re operating in.
Nally gave the example of a ski hill, where owners need to know which provincial regulations to follow.
Banff’s Sunshine Village ski resort, for instance, has the Great Divide chairlift, which chugs skiers across the provincial boundary twice on their way up the mountain.
Nally said the change would help with survey work that’s currently underway on the boundary.
According to the Land Title and Survey Authority of B.C. website, the question of the boundary’s location a century ago was murky enough for coal companies and foresters that the federal government and provinces agreed to establish a provincial boundary commission in 1913.
The federal government has updated the statute a few times, but a 1974 law, now in effect, says a representative from B.C., Alberta and the federal government now comprise the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission.
The commission is in charge of record-keeping, settling disputes about the boundary, maintaining and restoring monuments marking the boundary, and surveying the provincial line for changes.
In a technical briefing with reporters, Alberta officials said surveying work done on the boundary in 1979 and 1980 resulted in a new set of boundary markers plotting the line, but legal changes making the border move official were never done.
Alberta officials said they couldn’t think of a time when any change to the B.C.-Alberta border had been legalized.
Proposed changes to tracking child and youth deaths
Bill 38, the Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, 2025, also proposes to change the mandate of the province’s Office of the Child and Youth Advocate.
Nally said the bill would reduce the amount of reporting required of the advocate when young adults previously in government care die or are gravely injured.
The changes would also compel the advocate to report to legislators less frequently.
Nally characterized the changes as streamlining the advocate’s work so she can focus on making recommendations to improve services for vulnerable children and youth.
He said the children’s services ministry consulted with the advocate about the proposed changes, but Nally wasn’t involved in those consultations, and couldn’t say if the advocate asked for the amendments or supported them.
Nally referred questions to Children’s Services Minister Searle Turton, who won’t be available to reporters until later Wednesday afternoon.
A spokesperson for the advocate’s office said she was away on Wednesday.
New communication for tenants
Among the seven pieces of legislation that would be modified by Bill 38 is the Residential Tenancies Act. A proposed modernization would allow landlords to use electronic means, such as email, to serve tenants with documents about rent increases and eviction notices.
Nally said landlords should still attempt to communicate this information with tenants on paper, either in person or posted inside buildings.
The law allows landlords to try other methods — like faxing — when they can’t locate the tenants.
Nally says the amendment proposes to future-proof the law by allowing communication by electronic methods that have a time and date stamp of delivery and allow the sender to know when the recipient has read the message.
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