Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she’s worried potential provincial plans to require federal grant cash to flow through the Alberta government will slow down funding, making “life worse for Calgarians.”
The mayor spoke to media about new rules expected on the flow of federal funding during a noon break at the April 9 Public Hearing Meeting of Council. Her response came shortly before a provincial media advisory noting new legislation addressing agreements “between the federal government and provincial entities.”
Last week, Alberta Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services, Jason Nixon, told reporters that the province was prepared to pass legislation to prevent the federal government from directly providing funding to municipalities or other groups that receive their primary funding from the Alberta government.
Mayor Gondek said that the City of Calgary needs a relationship with the federal government.
“Cities are the economic engine of the country. We are frankly the economic engine for the province as well,” she said.
“And yet we benefit not at all when our economy is doing well. We do not benefit from the income tax that leaves our city. Both of those orders of government benefit from it.”
The mayor questioned if the province would be willing to step up to pay for the things that may no longer be funded with federal grant money because of proposed legislation.
“I don’t see that happening,” she said.
“What I see is a government picking a fight with another and refusing to let the city that’s in the middle of it, actually get the money that its citizens deserve and need.”
Federal government housing fund spurs provincial commentary
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Calgary to announce $600 million for innovative solutions for housing, including modular homes. The federal government also made a $6 billion announcement for a new housing infrastructure fund last week, but it would only be available to provinces if they make commitments to more so-called missing middle homes.
It was those events that spurred the comments from Minister Nixon.
“We don’t need federal bribe money, especially when the strings attached will build less homes,” he posted to the X platform (formerly Twitter), with a link to video comments made to CTV’s Power Play.
“We’re committed to progress, not to adding more red tape and roadblocks.”
Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott said it doesn’t make any sense for the province to add a layer of red tape that could stifle spending on potential city infrastructure. He believed the province was just playing politics.
“I think that’s a way for them to control the funding distribution so they can take credit for it. Not for them to actually provide the best services for the public,” Walcott said.
Walcott said a great example was in Ontario when Premier Doug Ford said two years ago that municipalities were the best organizations to decide how housing money should be spent. When the feds then came in to offer money to cities, Ford said provinces are the best to handle that money.
“It’s a similar story here in Alberta, where we want the autonomy rights as a province that loves sovereignty,” he said.
“We want the autonomy to be the housing regulator as we’re supposed to be, but only when the provincial government is in control. That’s not getting houses built fast enough.”
Mayor Gondek reiterated that federal and provincial offloading of responsibilities has left them with an annual funding gap in the hundreds of millions. When the city started to fund some of those things, it resulted in a substantial property tax increase, she said.
“Had the provincial government actually stepped up and given us the funds that we needed, had they not taken a greater share of provincial property taxes than we thought they would, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” she said.
“So, it’s incredibly frustrating to be a local government right now, where you’ve got two other orders of government – let’s call them mom and dad – that just want to fight with each other. I’m tired of it. Cities deserve better.”
