City to see minimal short-term impacts from provincial budget

“We anticipate MSI being stable to fulfil our capital budgets for 2021 and 2022. There will be impacts to the capital plan based on the outlined reduction in MSI funding,” said City Manager, Allan Seabrooke. “Originally, the Province intended to eliminate MSI in 2023, however, given the current circumstances and economic uncertainty, they are extending MSI for two years to stabilize Provincial revenues before launching the Local Government Fiscal Framework in 2024-2025.”

As for the MSI operating grants, the City’s estimates in the approved budgets are said to align with the Province’s funding for the next two years. This means that the City will not see any impact to the approved 2021 and 2022 operating budgets when it comes to that revenue stream.

Elsewhere, the education requisition collected by the City on behalf of the Province will go up this year. The amount collected by municipalities is based on assessed property values and equalized throughout the province.

“Based on the Province’s formula, we are anticipating an approximate 2.7 per cent increase to the education requisition,” said Mayor Veer. “We are committed to a zero per cent municipal property tax increase and we’re concerned about the impact this provincial number could have on our local property tax bills.”

From a community perspective, City officials say the Province made commitments to several capital projects in the community and the City is confident in the continued funding for the therapeutic community, shelter and Justice Centre.

As for Red Deer Regional Hospital, there are concerns around the total funding being put forward by the Province.

“There are still some details that need to be sorted out when it comes to the hospital expansion funding, originally it was stated there would be $100 million but we’re only seeing $59 million over the next three years in the budget released yesterday,” said Veer. “We will be contacting the Minister’s office to go over the specifics around this critical project that ensures we can alleviate the strain on our local health system.”

Another area of concern for the community is the reduction in funding for post-secondary institutes and what that means for Red Deer College.

”Red Deer College is one of the most important strategic economic diversification strategies in our community and our local economy,” said Mayor Veer. “We have significant questions about the status of our college and renew our call to the Province to release its post-secondary system review to fully understand the local impacts.”

Officials say the City will continue to review the provincial budget released on Thursday and work with Provincial counterparts to understand any further impacts to the City and the community.

by rdnewsNOW staff

City to see minimal short-term impacts from provincial budget

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