ICYMI: Now is the time to invest in Alberta's communities

The following opinion piece from Alberta Municipalities' Board of Directors outlines the association's expectations and hopes for the Government of Alberta's 2025 Budget, which will be introduced on February 27. It appeared in numerous Alberta-based newspapers earlier this month, including The Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune, The Lethbridge Herald, and The Red Deer Advocate (print edition). 

Now is the time to invest in Alberta's communities

As the Government of Alberta prepares to introduce Budget 2025 on February 27, Premier Danielle Smith and Finance Minister Nate Horner have been saying that Albertans face numerous economic and social challenges in the foreseeable future.

Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis), the association representing 260 municipalities of all sizes across the province, agrees with their assessment and believes the solution cannot simply be further financial belt tightening on the part of municipalities and regular Albertans. The financial belt is already unbearably tight, especially as Alberta’s population continues to grow by upwards of 200,000 people a year. A different approach is needed.

There is no time like the present to invest in our province’s future. For starters, municipalities need more provincial funding for local infrastructure, and they need it now. Municipal infrastructure is largely funded by the province’s Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) Capital program and its current level of funding is unable to address Alberta’s multi-billion-dollar infrastructure deficit. There simply isn’t enough base funding for all your community’s capital projects.

Without more provincial funding for local infrastructure, municipal councils will face one of two difficult choices – either significantly increase property taxes, or delay the building and replacement of community roads, water and wastewater systems, recreation centres, and other facilities that Albertans use each day.

Alberta Municipalities also wants to see the provincial government pay its fair share of municipal property taxes. The provincial government allocates Grants in Place of Taxes (GIPOT) to municipalities in return for services provided to provincial facilities, including road maintenance, snow clearing and fire services – the same municipal services you pay for with your property taxes.

Since 2019, the Government of Alberta has only paid municipalities about half the amount of GIPOT it owes. While this has allowed the provincial government to save tens of millions of dollars over the past five years, affected municipalities have continued delivering the necessary services to the detriment of other programs and services their residents need, want and deserve. We call on the provincial government to restore GIPOT funding to cover the full cost of municipal services to provincial facilities. It’s a matter of fairness.

Municipalities rely on provincial funding to deliver Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) in communities of all sizes across Alberta. Our province’s most vulnerable populations consider these programs vitally important. When vulnerable Albertans are unable to get the programs and services they need in their home communities, many people end up unhoused, unemployed, unhealthy, and disconnected from their families, friends and personal networks. We are asking the provincial government to increase FCSS funding. Every dollar invested in FCSS saves a significant amount of money on future spending on justice, homelessness, addictions and health care. Where FCSS is concerned, an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure.

Alberta Municipalities shares the provincial government’s desire to make Alberta the best province in Canada in which to work and live. On February 27, we encourage the provincial government to increase funding for municipalities so we can get closer to turning our shared vision into a reality.