New capital funding for municipalities announced

The Government of Alberta announced the new Local Growth and Sustainability Grant (LGSG), a funding program which promises to deliver $60 million over three years to municipalities that are experiencing infrastructure pressures due to rapid population growth, on October 22.

The move comes just over a year after Alberta Municipalities’ members passed a resolution calling for the provincial government to create such a funding program. In this instance, our association’s members were heard.

The LGSG offers two funding components – one for municipalities with populations between 10,000 and 200,000 people (Growth), and another for municipalities with populations below 10,000 people (Sustainability).

Growth component

This component is open to municipalities with populations of between 10,000 and 200,000 people that have a shovel-ready infrastructure project that supports economic growth or alleviates pressures on housing, tourism, or other growth pressures. The project must exceed $1 million in cost and municipalities can apply for funding of up to 50 per cent of the project cost.

The deadline to apply for this funding is November 29, 2024. This will be the only opportunity to apply for Growth Component funding. The funds will be spent over the next three years.

Sustainability component

This component is open to municipalities with populations below 10,000 people. It is designed address urgent infrastructure breakdowns that pose substantial health and safety risks to the public. There is no minimum project size and no formal application process or application deadline for this funding component. Instead, municipalities may notify the Minister of Municipal Affairs of a funding need that meets the program’s definition of an urgent infrastructure breakdown. The minister may fund projects as needed over the three-year period of the grant.

ABmunis' perspective

ABmunis applauds the Government of Alberta for launching the LGSG as it will provide short-term support to many municipalities who are challenged to deliver the infrastructure needed to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population.

At the same time, we note that adding $20 million annually is well short of the additional $1 billion in infrastructure funding that municipalities collectively called for before the provincial government launched the Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) Capital program this year. Municipalities currently receive less than half the amount of provincial funding per capita than they received a decade ago. This stresses the need for a more defined partnership between municipalities and the Government of Alberta to successfully address current and future infrastructure needs for Albertans.