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But the New Democrats said the updated MGA will ensure better, more sustainable planning without increasing taxes and fees.

“The Manning report contains a number of errors and incorrect interpretations of the Act,” Shannon Greer, press secretary for Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee, said in an email.

According to the report, the “provincial government claims there is a shortage of land for development in the Calgary and Edmonton areas.”

The report states the government “is proposing to ban new urban development” by creating sections of land that can’t be developed, called Conservation Reserves.

“This approach has led to extreme housing price increases in other cities around the world,” states the report.

But, Greer said the government “has never said Alberta’s large urban areas are running out of land” and the report’s author “completely misunderstands” what Conservation Reserves are.

“The Modernized Municipal Government Act absolutely does not ban development of land surrounding Calgary and Edmonton,” Greer wrote.

The current act gives municipalities control and management over wetlands and bodies of water by declaring them an Environmental Reserve, and the Conservation Reserve would be a new class of reserve that would allow municipalities to protect environmentally significant lands with features such as wildlife corridors.

“The statement that Conservation Reserves are being implemented by the province as a means to ban development is patently false,” Greer said.