The Government of Alberta said that should Budget 2024 pass, they would be providing $125 million over five years for drought and flood protection for municipalities.

Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, announced on March 4 that the funding would be modelled after the already successful Alberta Community Resilience Program, which ran from 2015 to 2020.

“We’re investing big with over $125 million in funding because we know that there are a lot of great projects just waiting to get the green light. This program is about funding the life saving infrastructure needed to protect Alberta communities for years to come,” said Minister Schulz.

“But more than that, this is about people. It’s about relocating water intake so that families have access to water. It’s about improving water access and storage so that businesses can keep the economy going. It’s about creating new flood barriers so that bridges don’t wash out and so basements remain dry.”

The total funding available to municipalities would be on a straight line $25 million per year basis and is being provided under the province’s Public Safety and Emergency Infrastructure capital grants.

Budget 2024 increased the emergency contingency funding up from $1.5 billion to $2 billion, which Minister of Finance Nate Horner said would be used to cover other aspects of emergency response.

Minister Horner talks budget for droughts with Calgary’s business community

Minister Horner, speaking at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Budget 2024, cited the risk of natural disasters and extreme weather, said that the original budgeted $1.5 billion had been depleted during the previous wildfire season.

“Last summer’s wildfire season burned 2.2 million hectares and forced the evacuation of more than 38,000 people. They also depleted our $1.5 billion contingency, and more than 50 fires continue,” he said.

He said that the budget would also be covering $151 million over three years for Wildfire Management, $55 million for firefighting equipment and facilities.

Overall, said Minister Horner, water should be the main scaling priority for the province over the next century.

“We see how long capital takes to build, and you see what’s happening in the southern states, what we should be doing, and there’s some studies in this budget around the feasibility of different in stream stream storage opportunities.”

The announcement was followed by the City of Calgary releasing their drought forecast for the city, heading into spring, which indicated that despite a weekend of heavy snow, there was likely to be continued drought in the city.

“The recent snowfall in the mountains over the last week was a welcome change, but more precipitation is needed throughout the next few months to significantly improve drought conditions,” said Nicole Newton, Manager of Natural Environment and Adaptation, in a prepared media release.

“If we don’t get the snow and rain we need, outdoor water restrictions will come into effect as early as this spring to ensure there’s enough water to meet Calgary’s essential needs including water for drinking and fighting fires, as well as to support our neighbours and river health.”

The city said river and snow levels remain below average, leading to the dry conditions felt throughout the region, and also highlighted that there were below average levels of water in reservoirs across the region—although there was a slightly higher than average level for the season in the Glenmore Reservoir.

Province says increased contingency funding will better protect municipalities like Calgary

In response to a question about whether that would include coverage for responses like the City of Calgary’s opening of evacuee centres during 2023, he said that the budget does provide some flexibility over those contingencies.

“We don’t know where the emergency will be, and we don’t know what type of emergency it could be. So it’s probably a little too early to tell. But what I like about this budget is it does provide us more flexibility,” Minister Horner said.

He said that there had been additional conversations between the government and municipalities to cover financially the responses from local fire departments, like the Calgary Fire Department, if there were requests for mutual aid this year.

“I know they’ve had those conversations between Municipal Affairs and Forestry and Parks, especially about how to better communicate if those municipal services people are needed,” he said.

“We know the stories you know what it costs them. So, I think we’ve learned a lot from last year.”

Eligible projects under the Drought and Flood funding would include diversion or relocation projects to protect critical infrastructure, structural measures like berms and flood walls, and bio-retention projects designed to retain water during drought conditions.