By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19) and Alessia Proietti

Mayor Johnston and Alberta Municipalities give budget reaction

Mar 3, 2023 | 11:05 AM

Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston says this year’s budget is a good news story.

He’s curious most of all to find out more about just how the $321 million allotted for Red Deer hospital expansion over the next two years will be spent.

You can read more on that here.

Johnston also commented on the switch from the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) to the new Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF).

For 2023/24, the program will remain the same, with changes to come for 2024/25.

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This mean’s the City’s 2024 operating budget will be adjusted, with an anticipated increase in provincial support, from about $700,000 to $1.4 million.

“Based on this budget it looks like we will see an increase in our MSI/LGFF operating and capital grants which, once we know the exact amounts, we will be able to make recommendations on how this could be allocated this year and into our multi-year budget,” says Tara Lodewyk, City Manager.

Mayor Johnston says it’s yet to be determined whether that additional funding would have a direct impact on taxpayers, with the option to put funds into reserves for a rainy day.

“Red Deerians, and all Albertans have been experiencing the financial impacts from COVID followed by sharp inflation,” Johnston concluded.

“This budget sees an increase in supports to cope with these pressures, and that will equate to positive impacts on our community.”

Meantime, Alberta Municipalities (formerly AUMA) says the budget shows the government has taken the political temperature of Alberta and decided to address many emergent issues.

“Our association is pleased to see the Government of Alberta listened to us and others when it decided to fully index funding to municipalities so that local governments’ funding increases and decreases as the provincial government’s revenues wax and wane. In this respect, ABmunis’ members feel more like full partners, rather than ‘children’ of the province,” the organization’s statement says.

“Where this budget falls short is in the allocation of funding to address Alberta’s growing infrastructure deficit. Alberta communities face a $30 billion infrastructure deficit. Put simply, Alberta’s municipalities own 60 per cent of the infrastructure, but they received just 1.0 per cent of this provincial budget. Many Albertans will be surprised to learn that per-capita provincial funding to municipalities has declined by 61 per cent since 2011.”

It says it will continue to press the government to commit to additional strategic infrastructure spending, over the coming months and ahead of the election.