Bill 43, the Alberta Economic Development Authority Amendment Act, 2013, reorganizes the authority’s governance model. It removes the statutory Executive, Board of Management and Economic Council structure and instead centers the authority on an Executive Chair, minister-appointed members and committees that may include members of the public.
The bill also creates fixed appointment terms, a 10-year limit on consecutive service, temporary holdover rules and broader authority to manage its own operations through bylaws. The practical effect is a more compact governance framework with less ministerial approval required for routine authority activities and bylaws.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill eliminates statutory references to the authority’s Board, Council and Executive as separate bodies. It permits the Minister to appoint up to 12 additional members on the recommendation of the Executive Chair, creates committees, and sets term and service limits for members and committee appointees.
Who It Affects
The changes directly affect the Premier, the responsible Minister, the Executive Chair, authority members, committee members and members of the public who may serve on committees. They also affect government officials and organizations that engage with the authority on economic development advice, research and consultation.
Why It Matters
The bill shifts the authority from a layered structure of overlapping bodies toward a single authority supported by committees. It also reallocates operational discretion by removing several approval requirements while preserving ministerial control over key appointments.
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What This Bill Actually Does
Bill 43 changes who makes up the Alberta Economic Development Authority and how its work is organized. The authority no longer consists by definition of members of an Executive, Board and Council.
Instead, the legislation provides for the Executive Chair, the Minister and up to 12 other members appointed by the Minister on the Executive Chair’s recommendation. The Minister may also designate a chair and vice-chair from those appointed members.
The bill imposes governance limits on those appointments. A member appointed under the new membership provision may serve for a term of no more than three years and may not serve more than 10 consecutive years.
After a term expires, the member can continue temporarily while awaiting reappointment or replacement, but only until one of those events occurs or three months pass. The same three-year and 10-year limits apply to committee appointments.The authority may establish committees, including committees with members of the public, to help it exercise its economic development functions.
It may delegate powers to those committees, except the power to make bylaws. The bill also removes the former requirement that the authority obtain Executive approval before carrying out its core activities and removes the requirement for approval before publishing reports, studies and recommendations.Operational rules move into a revised bylaw framework.
The authority may make bylaws concerning committee appointments, quorums, meetings and the roles of the chair, vice-chair and other members without the former requirement for Ministerial approval. It must provide the Minister with a copy of each bylaw as soon as practicable after making it.
The bill also removes the provision that would have caused the authority’s statute to expire unless extended, and sets the amendments’ commencement date in the legislation.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The Minister may appoint up to 12 additional authority members, but only on the recommendation of the Executive Chair.
Members appointed under the new membership provision may serve terms of no more than three years and no more than 10 consecutive years.
The authority may create committees that include members of the public and may delegate powers to them, except the power to make bylaws.
The authority no longer needs Executive approval for its core economic development activities or for publishing reports, studies and recommendations.
The authority must give the Minister a copy of each bylaw after it is made, but the bill removes the former requirement for Ministerial approval before making bylaws.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Replaces the authority’s multi-body structure
These provisions update the Act’s definitions and membership rules. They remove the statutory definitions of the Board, Council and Executive as separate components of the authority and replace the former structure with a membership model led by the Executive Chair and Minister-appointed members.
The Minister may appoint up to 12 additional members on the Executive Chair’s recommendation. The model gives the Executive Chair a formal role in selecting members while leaving the appointment power with the Minister.
Sets member terms, limits and leadership roles
New provisions cap member terms at three years and prohibit more than 10 consecutive years of service. A member may remain in office for up to three months after the term ends if no reappointment or successor has taken effect, which avoids an immediate vacancy but creates a defined outer limit for holdover service.
The Minister may designate a chair and vice-chair from among the appointed members. The bill also updates expense rules so that members of committees, like authority members, may receive only reasonable living and travelling expenses under an order.
Expands the authority’s operating independence
The authority no longer needs approval from the Executive before undertaking the activities listed in section 3. It may advise the Alberta government, support economic development strategy, encourage public discussion, review emerging issues and undertake related activities without that additional approval step.
The provision also allows the authority or Executive Chair to determine when reports, studies and recommendations should be published. The former delegation provision is removed and replaced by the more specific committee framework in the next section.
Creates committees and permits delegation
The authority may establish committees to assist with its powers and activities, and those committees may include members of the public. The authority may delegate powers to a committee, except the power to make bylaws.
This creates a flexible way to bring outside expertise into the authority’s work while keeping bylaw-making with the authority itself. The provision does not prescribe committee composition beyond permitting public members, leaving the operational details to bylaws.
Updates the bylaw-making framework
The authority may make bylaws dealing with committee appointments, quorums, meetings and the roles of the chair, vice-chair and other members. The bill removes the former requirement that the Minister approve those bylaws before they take effect.
Appointment terms for committee members cannot exceed three years or produce more than 10 consecutive years of service. Committee appointees receive the same limited holdover protection as authority members, and the authority must provide the Minister with a copy of each bylaw after making it.
Removes the statutory expiry provision
The bill repeals section 7 of the existing Act, which provided that the Act would expire unless continued by an order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council. Removing that provision eliminates the automatic expiry mechanism from the authority’s governing statute.
Sets commencement
The amendments come into force on December 15, 2013. This provision establishes when the revised governance, committee and bylaw rules begin to apply.
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Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Authority members and committee appointees benefit from clear maximum terms and a limited holdover period that prevents a role from ending abruptly while a replacement is arranged.
- The Executive Chair gains a formal recommendation role for up to 12 appointed members and greater influence over the authority’s membership structure.
- Members of the public and outside experts gain a route to participate directly through committees established to support the authority’s work.
- The authority gains more operational flexibility because it can conduct its core activities and make bylaws without obtaining the former approval required from the Executive or Minister.
Who Bears the Cost
- The responsible Minister retains appointment responsibilities and must manage the consequences of member turnover created by three-year terms and the 10-year service cap.
- The authority must administer term limits, holdover deadlines, committee appointments and bylaw disclosure to the Minister, creating ongoing governance and recordkeeping work.
- Existing members of the former Board, Council or Executive structure may lose a distinct statutory role as those separate bodies disappear from the Act.
- Organizations seeking stable, formally defined access to the authority may face less predictable engagement arrangements because committee composition and operating details move into authority-made bylaws.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill seeks a more flexible and efficient economic development authority while preserving public accountability through ministerial appointments and reporting of bylaws. Greater autonomy may allow the authority to respond more quickly and use outside expertise, but fewer approval checkpoints and a less prescriptive statutory structure may make oversight depend more heavily on appointments, internal bylaws and administrative practice.
The bill simplifies the authority’s formal structure, but it also concentrates more practical importance in appointments and bylaws. The legislation specifies who may be appointed and imposes service limits, yet it leaves many operational questions—such as committee composition, quorum details, meeting procedures and the division of work among members—to bylaws.
That flexibility can make the authority easier to adapt, but it makes the bylaws central to understanding how the institution will actually operate.
Removing approval requirements may speed up advice, research and publication, but it also reduces an explicit layer of executive or ministerial review. The Minister still controls appointments and receives copies of bylaws, so the bill does not remove government influence; it changes where that influence is exercised.
The transition from three statutory bodies to one authority also raises practical questions about how existing responsibilities, records and ongoing committee work will be allocated under the new framework.
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