Sustainable Support for Local Registry Agents
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association requests that the Government of Alberta recognize the vital role and positive impact that ARAs have in Alberta communities, and request that the province partner with the ARAs and local municipalities by
- Protecting local Registry Agent revenue streams by limiting additional future government encroachment above and beyond online fine payments, and
- Negotiating the fee structure within the Registry Agent Product Catalogue to recognize inflationary increases.
WHEREAS the Government of Alberta caps the fee amounts for Alberta Registry Agents (ARAs) through the Registry Agent Product Catalogue for those services that comprise the largest volume of revenues, which have not been adjusted to reflect the increases to the minimal wage or cost-of-living increases in Alberta;
WHEREAS the Government of Alberta has not provided details on the scope of government’s future involvement in providing online services;
WHEREAS the ARAs offer essential professional and personalized online services to clients near their homes, a fact of significant importance to aging Alberta clients with distance restricted driver’s licences, and/or with no ability to use the Internet for the conduct of personal government business;
WHEREAS the elimination of the critical mass of registry transactions and associated transaction fees could threaten the viability of all ARAs;
WHEREAS the potential closure of ARAs in small communities would have a negative impact on the local economy by diverting the spending outside of the municipality’s boundaries.
February 8, 2017 - The Government has committed in any situation where they would move forward with service modernization they will do so with the core principle that access to in-person registry services in rural Alberta are essential and must be preserved. Additionally, the government alluded to current discussions that are underway with stakeholders about future modernization of the registry service delivery system. Finally, there was a commitment that when developing a fee structure it will be one that is fair to Albertans and takes registry agents’ needs into account. The specific funding model is still in progress.
AUMA will continue to advocate on this issue.