Nenshi criticizes ‘shocker’ cuts to affordable-housing repairs budget
Mayor Naheed Nenshi warned Thursday that Calgary could be forced to close “entire buildings” of affordable housing because of the province’s planned $53-million cut to housing maintenance over the next three years.
“Of all the things you could imagine to cut, this one is a shocker,” Nenshi said.
Last year’s budget allocated $168.2 million from 2020-23 for affordable housing maintenance. The 2020 budget calls for $115.2 million in spending over that period.
Thursday’s budget arrives just four months after the United Conservative government’s first fiscal plan slashed funds for new infrastructure in Edmonton and Calgary, reducing capital transfers from $500 million to $455 million starting in 2022-23. Nenshi said at the time that was “a promise broken” as the province tore up the City Charters Fiscal Framework, an agreement made with the previous NDP government.
The provincial government stayed that course in the 2020 budget, with no further cuts to cities’ capital budgets — something Nenshi greeted as good news.
But Calgary currently needs 15,000 more units of affordable housing just to reach the national average, and Nenshi said he was alarmed to see a funding decrease for much-needed repairs on existing units.
“We are in a position where someone moves on, out of affordable housing, we can’t give their unit to someone else because it doesn’t meet basic life requirements,” he said.
“Basically, no good can come of this — and if you’re going to cut your capital budget, what a bizarre place to cut your capital budget.”
The $53-million cut to maintenance would apply to affordable housing across the province, so it’s not yet clear how much of the burden Calgary would bear. But Nenshi said it’s often a matter of tens of thousands of dollars to upgrade housing units, making $53 million a big number.
“We’re going to do everything we can to keep people safe and in their homes ... but we’re talking about a lot of units.”
BUDGET’S ‘LONG SHADOW’
In October, the UCP’S first budget prompted urgent city council meetings in both Edmonton and Calgary to sort out what the cuts would mean for the cities’ financial plans. Calgary city council has since slashed $60.4 million from capital spending, delaying replacements for aging Calgary Transit vehicles.
The province’s documents say the capital transfer reductions mean “the province is better able to support municipalities and distribute funding within the province’s fiscal capacity.”
Nenshi said that change continues to cast a “long shadow” over the city.
Alberta Urban Municipalities Association president Barry Morishita said cities are now getting a “breather” to deal with the cuts they took last year. But he’s also concerned about a 3.1 per cent increase in this year’s education property tax rates — the portion of property tax revenues cities are obligated to send to the province.
“To take on the downloading that happened during the last budget that projected into this one, to take away some precious fiscal capacity isn’t really helpful,” Morishita said.
Nenshi said that will amount to a “huge increase” on Calgarians’ property tax bills, on top of a $15.5-million increase the province already imposed in the last budget.
“When they keep telling us that we’ve got to get our property tax increases under control, it’s been many, many, many years since we’ve increased them by as much as the province is increasing them this year.”
The 2020 budget doesn’t offer plans to rethink delayed funding or Calgary’s massive Green Line LRT expansion. The province announced in October the city would get just $75 million of an expected $555 million of provincial funding over the next four years — a change Nenshi said puts the Green Line “in jeopardy” and that city council has struggled with amid work to finalize the train’s downtown alignment and start construction.
There’s $343.1 million allocated for Calgary’s and Edmonton’s LRT projects in 2020-21, which appears to be more than the last provincial budget — but the increase is due to federal funding not used in 2019 being moved into the next fiscal year.
FLOOD MITIGATION
The Alberta government also announced Thursday a plan to move toward flood mitigation on the Bow River, allocating $15 million over three years to explore options for a dam.
Preventing future flooding has been a priority for Calgary since the city was devastated in 2013, but there’s still no major upstream mitigation on the Bow or Elbow rivers. The Springbank reservoir, a project planned to contain Elbow River flooding, has been mired in environmental reviews and a federal regulatory process for years.
According to the budget, the government is planning consultations, geotechnical work and a drilling program to find a “preferred site” out of three possibilities for a reservoir on the Bow. Work on the Springbank project is also included in the government’s plans to spend $57.9 million on water management in 2020-21.
Over the next three years, the 2020 budget includes $110 million for Deerfoot Trail upgrades, $802 million for the Calgary Cancer Centre and $1.43 billion for Edmonton and Calgary’s ring roads.