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 eliminate the need for a boundary change referendum. The change is included in Bill 38, which would modify seven pieces of legislation in an effort to reduce regulatory burdens.

"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.

• How a melting glacier could redefine the Alberta-B.C. border

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.

Shawn Marshall, a glacier researcher who studies the Continental Divide, says the "most wiggly border" in Canada is influenced mostly by glaciers melting unevenly on each side of the border — a process that's exacerbated by climate change..

Glacial melt has reduced the height of some mountainous land by as much as 40 metres since the border was originally drawn, he said.

"Right now, the Continental Divide follows a very indirect route and for actual governance of those lands, maybe it's easier to draw a line through those," Marshall said.

Legally changing what land belongs to which province also affects who owns the potentially valuable resources underground, he said

Even if the need for a referendum is eliminated, Alberta can't orchestrate a land grab without negotiating with B.C., he said.

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.

Bill would limit youth advocate from tracking some 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 (OCYA).

If passed, the legislation would prevent the advocate from reporting on deaths of young people age 20 and older. Right now, the advocate's mandate compels them to look into the deaths and serious injury reports of young people who are or were involved with the child intervention system within the previous two years. This mandate includes people up to age 24.

In advocate Terri Pelton's most recent report on the deaths and injuries of 48 young people in 2023-24, 13 of the young people were adults. It's unclear how many were age 20 or older.

Children's Services Minister Searle Turton told reporters at the legislature Wednesday that young adults have access to many other programs and services.

"Having those resources focus on those ages of children under the age of 18, I think it's going to pay huge dividends for children here in this province," he said of the advocate's proposed new mandate.

The changes would also compel the advocate to report to legislators less frequently.

Turton said his office did consult with Pelton and that "she's very supportive of many of the items that we put forth in the bill."

In a statement, Pelton said her office is the only provincial organization that consistently reviews the deaths of young adults who were previously in government care.

"I remain deeply concerned about young people aged 20-24," her statement said. "The transition to adulthood is a critical period, and we continue to see a significant number of young adults who were in government care as children, dying."

Although the bill may change investigation requirements, Pelton said it doesn't stop her office, or the advocate's youth council, from raising awareness about the challenges young people face when transitioning from childhood in government care into adulthood.

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.