Edmonton to see $61M drop in infrastructure grant money
Edmonton will see an immediate drop in its basic infrastructure grant from the provincial government.
But Mayor Don Iveson was smiling anyway, hoping this is the last time Edmonton will have to stand at the table with its hand out for grants.
Alberta promised in Thursday’s budget to write a new funding formula to give the city a dedicated share of provincial revenue in the future.
“We want to get to something stable and predictable that’s isn’t going to be torqued downward every couple years, every time Alberta goes through another fiscal problem,” said Iveson, after the provincial budget speech.
“That would give cities and municipalities a share of the growth,” he said. “It’s a strong commitment.”
The current grant to cities, known as the Municipal Sustainability Initiative, pays for everything from roads to recreation centres. It was originally pitched as a 10-year, $11.3-billion program, but has been stretched to over 15 years instead.
Edmonton received $165 million through the grant in 2017 and $190 million in 2018. The grant will drop by $61 million this year and hold at that lower rate until a new deal is negotiated.
Calgary and Edmonton are the only cities facing the grant reduction, said Infrastructure Minister Sandra Jansen. That’s because they are getting large infrastructure investments in other areas of the budget.
She said talks will begin as soon as possible, but did not commit to a deadline for the new funding formula. The negotiations have been part of the city charter discussions, she said.
The amount of money, and the type of revenue it’s tied to, has not been worked out.
“These are long-term plans,” she said. “We’re not in a rush; we want to get it right. That’s what a nice, ongoing relationship with our two biggest cities means to us.”
Iveson said he’d like municipal funding tied to all government revenues, or at least the most stable ones. Ideally, the formula will include a two-year time lag to help cities adjust to economic changes, he said.
The government also announced details of the education property tax Thursday for 2018-19.
The total provincial take is being frozen for the second year. But Edmonton’s portion is going up because it gets recalculated city by city depending on how much property values changed relative to everywhere else in the province.
The increase will mean an extra $20 from the typical Edmonton homeowner.
We could bring forward drastic cuts like the Opposition is proposing, but I think Albertans continue to be clear that they want us to improve and protect health care. So we are finding ways to find efficiencies and make improvements.
HEALTH MINISTER SARAH HOFFMAN
This is a boost and moves the pendulum in the right direction. I’ll take this for now and keep asking for more.
HEALTH SCIENCES ASSOCIATION OF ALBERTA PRESIDENT MIKE PARKER, on $23 million more for ambulances
I think for the last four budgets this government has been able to keep health spending at around population and inflation growth. This time, they haven’t. There is not enough clarity in terms of what direction this government is taking to find efficiencies. I’m hoping they are not being put on the front lines.
SANDRA AZOCAR, executive director of Friends of Medicare
We’ve been through this in Alberta before, it’s difficult to get out of a debt trap they’re dragging us deep into.
UNITED CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER JASON KENNEY
We can go ahead and build the west (LRT) line. That’s a big win. And there’s actually additional dollars there to move into … other lines, bus rapid transit project, bus electrification.
MAYOR DON IVESON