With the provincial budget dropping Thursday, St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron has her eye on infrastructure funding.
Heron said the biggest issue for municipalities this budget is going to be infrastructure funding, also known as MSI (Municipal Sustainability Initiative).
“I have a high level of confidence that we will get a reduction in infrastructure funding,” Heron said. “Municipalities accept that. We want to work with this government and we recognize that we are in hard economic times and we are all going to take a cut."
The mayor said as long as cuts are fair and across the board, she will be happy. She added that is the indication she has been given from Premier Jason Kenney himself.
The provincial budget will be released Thursday, with the St. Albert municipal budget following closely its heels Monday. St. Albert had to put together its budget without knowing how much capital infrastructure funding it would be receiving.
“We might have to relook at the capital side, but the operating will not be as strongly affected,” Heron said.
“The City of St. Albert is in a pretty good financial place."
She added some municipalities across Alberta are using their MSI funding to service their debt, and St. Albert has never gone that route.
The mayor noted the RMR (repair, maintain, replace) funding for the city will not be impacted by a reduction in provincial funding.
Heron said despite possible cuts to infrastructure funding, council is still hoping to put shovels in the ground this term for a new recreation facility.
“We might get reduced MSI, but maybe we'll raise some more money through the utility corporation and waste-to-energy, so maybe we'll be okay,” she said, referencing a proposed municipal utility corporation that council will see the business case for soon, as well as a pilot waste-to-energy project the city issued tenders for earlier this year.
The mayor said the city could be impacted if other grants, like the policing grant, library grant and FCSS are cut.
“I think everybody is going to share in the pain,” Heron said.
The mayor said overall the city can deal with the potential cuts.
“My concern is if it affects a group ... like the not-for-profits, and then they need to come to council asking for money. My message to them is, we're all getting cut, we're all going to have to live with it. So don't come asking council for money. We are all going to have to take this and it's fair,” she said.
“We are going to have to be trimming our own budget and I expect that those we support financially through outside agencies ... would do the same.”
St. Albert Public School Board trustee and chair Glenys Edwards said the board is expecting an interim budget to get the province through until the spring and expects no new capital announcements. Edwards said they have been part of extensive consultations on the budget they expect to be released in the early months of 2020.
“We feel we have been consulted ... particularly with the funding framework review, which will be reflected in the budget in February.”
“We understand that there is a need for restraint. That's very clear, but we've got capital needs, school building needs that just can't be ignored.”
Edwards said the rebuild of Paul Kane School will help answer some of their problems for high school spaces, as the new building will add an additional 250 spaces.
Edwards said they have 50 portables and an additional 50 modules, both of which are temporary classroom spaces, that house 2,000 students. Edwards said they need more spaces for the growing population of St. Albert, including a modernization and expansion at Bellerose and another high school going forward.
For the budget on Thursday, Edwards said she will have her eye on the per-student grant.
“We are hoping for no cutback to the basic per-student grant.”
The provincial budget will be released on Thursday.
