Mayor Gerald Aalbers and members of council will attend the 2023 Alberta Municipalities Convention and Trade Show in Edmonton Sept. 27-28. Source File Photo
One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to infrastructure funding for growing municipalities in Alberta, including the City of Lloydminster.
Mayor Gerald Aalbers and city council members will add their voices to a call for the government to provide more infrastructure funding for high-growth cities at the upcoming Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis) 2023 convention and tradeshow in Edmonton.
The City of Airdrie is behind a proposed Provincial Funding for Growing Municipalities resolution of interest to Lloydminster at the two-day convention on Sept. 27-28.
“Airdrie falls into a similar group with Lloydminster and others. We call each other the mid-size cities and are seeing growth,” said Aalbers.
A total of 61 Alberta municipalities recorded a growth rate of more than 10 per cent from 2016-22 according to the government’s Office of Statistics and Information.
“Some members of ABmunis are trying to raise that matter that funding is critical, certainly infrastructure funding in particular because as we continue to grow, we need that infrastructure,” said Aalbers.
The resolution notes Alberta funding programs for municipal water, wastewater and local infrastructure projects is not equally available to all municipalities to meet important infrastructure needs.
“That is the challenge based on current regulations and policies put out by the government. It speaks to the need for government to realize one glove does not fit everybody,” said Aalbers.
The mayor says he already shared that with Premier Danielle Smith when she attended Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association Finals at Halstead Downs last week.
“She understands it’s a challenge; it’s always a balancing act of income and expenses.
“Certainly, I think she heard very clearly that growing communities need to be treated differently than communities that are holding their own and are steady, but not seeing the growth that other communities are seeing.”
Aalbers says a recent study by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation shows about 52 per cent of a municipality’s revenue source is taxes, 21 per cent approximately comes from government grants and the remainder comes from user fees and fines.
The Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) Transition Fund, introduced in Alberta Budget 2023-24, will help offset the impact of the formula chosen to distribute funds, but does nothing to address the impact of the overall decrease in the funding available to non-charter cities like Airdrie.
The LGFF will result in a 37 per cent decrease in total dedicated capital funding to municipalities in 2024-25.
“When you have 21 per cent or more dependent on the government, if there’s a change, it’s going to have taxation implications,” said Aalbers.
He says there’s a huge difference in infrastructure capital if a municipality is in an expansion mode like Lloydminster and Airdrie compared to those with stagnant or steady growth.
Aalbers says Lloydminster hasn’t proposed any resolutions at ABmunis for a couple of years, noting a lot of local issues “have bi-provincial tendencies” that differentiate the city from others in the province.
Likewise at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention in the spring.
