Alberta mid-sized cities calling for equitable grant funding from province
Provincial grant funding and the urban/rural police funding inequity were top of mind at the Alberta Mid-Sized Cities Mayors’ and CAOs’ Caucus meeting last week in Cochrane.
The bi-annual meeting was attended by the mayors and CAOs of 22 Alberta cities with populations above 15,000, who represent roughly one million Albertans.
Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer says there’s a formal request from the caucus for an actual formula to replace the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) scheduled to end in 2022. MSI has allocated almost $9.6 billion to Alberta municipalities since the program launched in 2007.
“The province has not currently tabled for mid-sized cities what that formula is,” explains Veer. “So the formal request is for a formula.”