By rdnewsNOW staff

Alberta mid-sized cities calling for equitable grant funding from province

Feb 5, 2019 | 2:36 PM

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.”

Veer says caucus delegates heard from all four major provincial party leaders ast last week’s meeting about their policy visions for Alberta.

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“Certainly the message of mid-sized caucus to those party leaders is that we want a direct relationship with the provincial government, similar to the relationship and charter status that Edmonton and Calgary enjoy,” states Veer. “Then if the Province has an expectation on municipalities to establish longer-term capital plans, then we need some certainty around provincial grants. It’s difficult for us to fulfill the Province’s expectations around long-term capital planning if we do not have a long-term agreement in terms of Provincial grants to cities.”

City of Lacombe CAO Matthew Goudy says the significance of caucus cannot be understated.

“It allows members to work together to address pressing issues like municipal funding and call for equal consideration for all Alberta municipalities by the federal and provincial governments.”