St. Albert is facing a shortfall of capital dollars in 2020 to repair, maintain and replace the city's existing infrastructure, but the city says it has a plan.
The draft 2019 budget, released in October, shows a shortfall in the near future, with the city requiring $33.2 million to fix sidewalks and roads, pave back lanes and replace barrier walls.
Next year, a large portion of the funding set aside for repair, maintenance and replacement (referred to by council and in budget documents as RMR funding) will be spent on reconstructing Fire Station 1, which is estimated at $12.4 million and is considered an essential project for the city.
A chart supplied by the city shows the proposed RMR spending for 2020 at $33.2 million, while expected funding comes in at $30 million – creating a shortfall of $3.2 million.
Mayor Cathy Heron said the shortfall for the upcoming year was on the minds of councillors while they were debating motions for budget and weighing spending on capital projects.
During a Nov. 27 debate over removing funding for a recreation facility Heron reminded council that they were facing a shortfall for RMR.
“I’m going to remind you over and over and over again that if you look two, three years out, we have no money to do RMR,” Heron said to council members.
This week, Heron said she is always concerned about meeting the city's RMR needs because that is the basic level of services council wants to deliver to residents – making sure there are no potholes and sidewalks aren’t cracking.
“St. Albert for the most part has done a really fantastic job of looking after our current infrastructure in the ground and above the ground, but as you can see in the next couple years, we do have some issues,” she said.
Council has set aside $800,000, some of which will go toward RMR next year.
“We are putting money aside for asset maintenance of what we currently own,” Heron said.
According to city administration, there is a plan to meet the shortfall next year, although details are slim right now.
No one from the city was available for an interview, but financial services director Diane McMordie provided the Gazette with a statement via an email that the budget councillors will vote on Dec. 17 includes measures to carry forward funds to 2020 for the shortfall.
Details on what those measures are were not available at press time.
“In essence the capital growth projects approved this year considered the need to save some of our available funding for the 2020 RMR & growth needs,” McMordie stated.
The mayor wants to consider a policy going forward where the city ties the size of the capital funding envelope to a percentage of the assets the city owns.
“As we grow, some money we’re putting aside for maintenance of that grows as well,” Heron said.
Coun. Sheena Hughes noted there is still $6 million from this budget that will be carried forward next year to help cover the predicted shortfall.
“I expect that the RMR should be accounted for. But what (that) does not give you is a lot of extra money for growth projects, which tends to be close to 50 per cent of most capital budgets,” Hughes said.
Coun. Ken MacKay said this year’s budget is responsible and forward thinking because it does carry forward the money to help cover the RMR funding shortfall next year.
“It’s a good budget because it anticipates that we’re going to be impacted in some (way) in the short term around some of the RMR and growth need,” MacKay said.
City staff will present council members with the plan to cover the RMR shortfall at the Dec. 17 council meeting.
