Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she’s hoping to see the province provide more cash to municipalities to help fund the hundreds of millions in provincial and federal services offloaded to cities.
However, while the provincial budget will be tabled next Thursday, Premier Danielle Smith, in a televised address Wednesday, said there would be restraint shown as resource revenue will be lower than predicted.
Mayor Gondek said they’ve been consistent with their message that between the provincial and federal governments, there’s a shortfall of $311 million that the City of Calgary has to cover annually. With the province having projected billions in surplus in their regular economic updates, she said that it’s time for the Alberta government to pony up.
“I can tell you that we are still sorely missing the 13 plus million dollars that vanished from our police budget from the provincial government that we’ve now had to take up on our own, which impacts Calgary and taxpayers,” she told media during an affordable housing partnership announcement on Wednesday.
“I’d be very interested to see if we’re going to do something about the 13 and a half million dollars that we are expending on medical response because our fire department is taking up medical calls.”
In her pre-recorded televised address, Premier Danielle Smith said that spending cuts won’t be needed in the upcoming budget. She did say, however, that a promised personal income tax cut for Albertans won’t be happening.
Spending restraint will have to be shown, she said.
“We will ensure this is done thoughtfully and with priority given to the programs and services Albertans most rely on such as health, education, and social supports,” Premier Smith said.
Limit spending to below inflation, population growth
Premier Smith said that she’s instructed Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner to limit provincial increases in spending to below the legislated rate cap of inflation plus population growth. Both in lean years and when natural resource revenues are high, she said.
“Instead of spending all that non-renewable surplus cash on the wants of today, we will be fiscally disciplined, invest in the Heritage Fund annually, strategically pay down maturing debt, and slowly but surely wean our province’s budget off the volatile roller coaster of resource revenues,” Premier Smith said.
Mayor Gondek said the province also needs to step up its support for some of the downtown Calgary incentives, particularly those to aid in public safety and public realm improvements. The mayor is also hopeful there will be more robust provincial investments in housing.
“I remain eternally optimistic that we will see some of those within the budget. But again, like you, I’m waiting,” the mayor said.
“Calgary absolutely deserves to get more from the provincial government, especially at a time when they’re predicting 5.5 billion in terms of a surplus. Some of that has to come down to municipalities.”
The province has recently changed its formula for funding municipalities, with the funding mechanism fully indexed to provincial revenues. That means when provincial revenues increase, so does municipal funding. On the flip side, when provincial revenues decline, so do allocations for Alberta towns and cities.
