Election call puts infrastructure funding deal on hold
Alberta municipalities were close to signing an infrastructure funding deal similar to what Edmonton and Calgary got from the province, but ran out of time before the election.
St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said Thursday that urban and rural municipalities were “close but not across the finish line” in getting a new revenue-sharing plan sorted out with the province before the writ dropped. The municipalities want $500-million, equal to what the province’s two largest cities are sharing between them, said Heron, who serves as Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) vice-president of cities with fewer than 500,000 residents.
“We get that we’re not going to get as much money as we had in the past. We just want an (agreement) fair and equitable to Edmonton and Calgary’s agreement and that wasn’t on the table,” Heron said, speaking to reporters following remarks by provincial politicians at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association spring leaders’ caucus.
Calgary is expected to get $289 million and Edmonton $211 million in the first year of the new agreement in 2022-23 when the current agreement, the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) expires. The remaining communities — from mid-size cities to tiny hamlets and sprawling rural counties — are still unsure how much they’ll get.
With the new agreement for the two big cities, Edmonton’s average annual funding dropped by about 21 to 22 per cent, city spokeswoman Melissa Lovatt confirmed in an email Wednesday. Loveatt said that in years past, the city projected receiving about $270 million annually, and the new deal reduces that on average by about $61 million.
Heron said the infrastructure funding issue is a top priority for the AUMA, and that they were working alongside the Rural Municipalities Association. She thinks they could have wrapped up negotiating with just a few more weeks.
“We worked really hard to reach an agreement with all municipalities, and we just ran out of time,” said Brian Mason, former NDP member for Highlands-Norwood, speaking to reporters Thursday. “We’ll pick up where we left off and continue to negotiate in good faith to get the kind of agreement that allows all municipalities to have the stable and reliable funding that they need to provide funding to their people.”
Mason and representatives from the United Conservative Party and Alberta Party each made remarks at the AUMA event Thursday.
UCP candidate for Calgary-Hays Ric McIver said if his party forms government, it will respect the deal that Edmonton and Calgary struck, and that it will sit down with municipalities and come up with an equitable agreement for them as well.
“We’ve got to get their advice. If we get into government, we’ll have to see how empty the cupboards are, we’re going to have to look at what the commitments are, we’re going to have to make it all make sense. But the No. 1 thing we believe is the solution is growing the economy,” McIver said.
Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel told the crowd his party would commit to finalizing a new funding agreement within nine months of forming government. He said his party would come up with multiple formulas to meet different needs for different sized communities.
“We can’t have a hard-and-fast rule, because the economy right now is so slow that it wouldn’t solve their problem.