Alberta Municipalities says the government’s budget offers some relief to communities but more needs to be done to address a $30 billion infrastructure deficit.
Cathy Heron, president of the organization that represents more than 330 Alberta communities, said the government’s move to link provincial funding for municipalities directly to the rise and fall in provincial revenues will help.
ABmunis strongly lobbied for the change after the province initially had committed only to raise the percentage increase of funding to municipalities by half of the province’s revenue growth rate.
“In this respect, ABmunis’s members feel more like full partners, rather than ‘children’ of the province,” said Heron in a budget presentation on Wednesday.
This will be the last year that funding will be provided under the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) program introduced 17 years ago. The province will dole out $485 million in MSI funding this year.
The program will be replaced by the Local Government Fiscal Framework program next year, which will provide $722 million.
However, that increase still falls below the 10-year average of provincial government funding and is down 61 per cent on a per capita basis since 2011.
Alberta’s municipalities own 60 per cent of the province’s infrastructure yet receive only one per cent of the budget and are facing a $30 billion infrastructure deficit, said Heron.
“Alberta Municipalities will continue pressing the provincial government to commit to additional strategic infrastructure in the coming weeks and months,” she said. “We also plan to raise this issue with all provincial political parties in the run-up to the 2023 provincial election.”
Municipalities are pleased to see provincial grants to municipalities for operating costs will double to $60 million this year and Family Community Support Services funding will increase to $115 million from $100 million, where it has been for a number of years.
A boost in funding for regional economic development initiatives, such as Central Alberta Economic Partnership, has also been well received.