Nenshi blames large capital spending cut on province
Mayor warns citizens will feel impact as council slashes $60M in capital spending
Mayor Naheed Nenshi criticized what he called “ginormous” cuts to Calgary in the UCP government’s fall budget as city council slashed more than $60 million from capital spending Tuesday.
October’s provincial budget reduced Calgary’s current infrastructure grant by $73 million over the next two years and changed the funding framework set to replace the current grant program — the new system will see Calgary get $455 million per year instead of $500 million, starting in 2022-23.
Nenshi called that reduction especially “egregious,” since it changed funding agreements Calgary and Edmonton had already agreed to, and which had already forced capital funding reductions.
Nenshi said Tuesday’s budget cuts were necessary even though the city has done a “great job” managing the capital budget. He warned residents will now face “the cumulative effect of the ginormous cuts we’ve been asked to take by the government of Alberta.”
“This is the chickens coming home to roost,” the mayor said. “Citizens will see this and they will see the impact of this as we go forward. Roads will be in slightly less good repair. … It’ll take us longer to renovate things and we will build fewer new things.”
Provincial government ministers have repeatedly told Calgary city council to “get your fiscal house in order,” with Municipal Affairs Minister Kaycee Madu accusing Calgary of “excessive” spending in an op-ed ahead of the UCP’S budget.
Tuesday’s capital cuts cover the $73-million shortfall with $60.4 million in across-the-board reductions, while $12.6 million from reserve funds makes up the difference. The reductions include less money for bus refurbishment and affordable housing planning.
The provincial budget also cancelled two grant programs Calgary was expecting to use for public transit and flood mitigation. The city was expecting $100 million from the now-scrapped Alberta Community Transit fund, and the plan was to use the money to buy replacement Ctrain cars for some of the oldest parts of the fleet.
“People need to know that the cut of $100 million to an already funded program in community transit means we had to order fewer LRV cars at a higher price per car,” Nenshi said. “That’s not good fiscal management — that’s wasting money.”
Council passed the package of cuts with only Coun. Druh Farrell opposed. She said she couldn’t support it because established communities were carrying most of the burden of budget reductions. She questioned why growth hadn’t been more directly targeted.
City officials said new communities have already seen cuts to operating funds, but there might be different budget choices to make after an expected growth monitoring report this fall.
Nenshi said that as the city moves forward in “constrained” budget times, they’ll have to watch carefully for where the cuts land.
“It is the case that we’re spending a lot of money on building leading infrastructure where people don’t live yet, and we’re asking citizens in places where people do live to put up with less capital investment.”
Roads will be in slightly less good repair. … It’ll take us longer to renovate things and we will build fewer new things.”