Councillors in Gibbons, Alta., want the province to pause a viability review into the town’s future, after the Alberta government tabled a bill that would change the process.

The Municipal Affairs and Housing Statutes Amendment Act, 2026, which is currently before the legislature, would allow the minister to disregard the results of residents’ wishes in a viability plebiscite.

The Municipal Governance Act currently requires the minister to recommend that cabinet dissolve a municipality, if a majority of residents vote to support that step.

Gibbons Mayor Rick Henderson told CBC News Wednesday that it’s “dirty pool” for the government to change the rules partway through the review process.

“It was very disheartening, for sure, that it takes it out of our hands and puts it solely into the [provincial] government’s hands,” Henderson said.

The town’s books were in dire shape when residents elected an entirely new town council in October 2025, he said. They found a municipality of 3,200 residents with more than $12 million in debt. The annual budget is about $3 million, he said.

In December, while struggling to make payroll and its credit limit reached, the town requested the province conduct an expedited viability review. That review, which should take about four months, began in February.

Henderson said they asked for the review in hopes of getting a provincial grant. The province gave them $500,000 to ease the crisis.

Gibbons’ financial future now looks less dire, he said. The town has laid off some staff, reduced services — such as cutting grass less frequently and closing the arena in the summertime — and council is on track to pass a balanced budget next week, with a 4.89 per cent tax increase.

Administrators have a plan to pay down the town’s debt within five or six years, he said.

Now, council has written to Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams, asking him to pause the review.

Minister will still consider plebiscite result

At the legislature Wednesday, Williams told reporters he’ll meet with the council, but the review they asked for will proceed.

Williams said he wants to see how Gibbons residents vote in the viability plebiscite before making a decision about the town’s future.

“This piece of legislation was something that was being worked on well before Gibbons came to our attention. It’s something we need to have an honest conversation, across all of rural Alberta, about the nature of viability,” he said.

Four other Alberta municipalities — all villages — are also undergoing viability reviews, according to the government’s website.

Williams did not directly answer a question about whether it is fair to change the process midway through.

Surrounding county has no say

Sturgeon County Mayor Alanna Hnatiw says she sympathizes with Gibbons residents feeling a loss of control. County residents do not have a vote on whether the town residents would join them.

“I can understand why the residents of Gibbons, or any other community going through a viability review right now, would feel like maybe it’s a bit of a bait and switch, because they’ve started into this with one understanding, and and now are seeing the rules change midway through that,” she said.

However, town council did ask for the review, which the public is paying for, and cabinet will still have the final say on whether Gibbons remains a corporate entity, she said.

Should the town dissolve, the county of around 21,000 people would become responsible for Gibbons’ upkeep and infrastructure. The county, has no knowledge of the condition of the town’s water or sewer lines or their facilities, Hnatiw said.

With dwindling grant dollars available to municipalities, and more provincial oversight into which grants municipalities can receive from the federal government, it might be hard to maintain a level of public services Gibbons residents have come to expect, she said.

In Gibbons, meanwhile, Henderson says he hears strong support from residents to keep their town status.

But he wonders, if people voted to remain a town, whether the provincial government would change the bill to force it to dissolve.

“I don’t know if that’s a good political move,” Henderson said.

Williams said the Alberta government proposed the legislative change with smaller rural communities in mind.