The City of St. Albert can breathe a little easier now that the government has announced this year’s Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding amounts.
Until Thursday, municipalities across the province were in limbo about how much infrastructure dollars they would be receiving under the program, which is meant to support local projects, such as roadways, public transit and recreational facilities.
While the funding has yet to be ratified in the provincial budget, the announcement provides some kind of framework for municipalities to work with heading into their own budget planning seasons, Mayor Nolan Crouse said.
“We’re going to head into the fall budget on the understanding that we’re going to be in that $11.6 million range and that feels really good. Now we’re going to be able to be planning our next year accordingly,” he said.
St. Albert’s 2015 capital MSI funding comes in about $200,000 less than last year’s amount. In 2014, the city received $11.8 million from the province.
The province announced Thursday that St. Albert would receive $6.4 million for 2015-16. Combined with the March 2015 amount allocated by the Jim Prentice government, which the current government has decided to shift to the current fiscal year, the city’s total capital MSI grant comes in at $11.6 million – which is nothing to balk at, Crouse said.
“We are very consistent in that $11.6 to $11.8 million (range), obviously I could sit here and complain because the time value of money means that’s less and less every year. However, it is consistent and so far it’s been predictable,” he said.
“I don’t want to be taking any shots at anybody over the fact that it’s lower than what was committed eight years ago when it was first consummated. I also don’t want to be taking any shots at anybody for a small difference from one year to the next.”
When the program was originally envisioned in 2007, then-premier Ed Stelmach committed $11.3 billion for all muncipalities over 10 years. So far, the government of Alberta has given out $6.7 billion.
With the program set to end in 2017, there are many questions about what will follow.
Without providing any specific details, Municipal Affairs Minister Deron Bilous said the program will be revised.
“The timing of (the NDP) coming into government, especially in Municipal Affairs, is very exciting,” he said. “With the MGA review (there have been) lots of ideas that have been passed around from different organizations and municipalities. We will be looking at the program of MSI, we will be discussing it at cabinet and looking at how can we best serve municipalities, how can we best ensure that they have the dollars to provide programs and services.”
While Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson had strong opinions on how to reform the MSI program, stating the province could do better on addressing the “special burdens” on big cities and that the current funding formula results in a “windfall” of funding for municipalities with large industrial tax bases, Crouse said he has no qualms with the program in its current form.
“St. Albert has never really had any difficulty with the formula,” Crouse said, although he did recognize the advantage the formula provides large industry towns. “There’s no one formula that’s going to work for everybody. And for St. Albert’s situation, we have been OK with the model.”
Province-wide an estimated $876.9 million was announced Thursday, with just over half of that amount going towards capital projects.
Combined with the $400 million in additional March 2015 MSI monies, the 2015-16 investment into capital projects totals $900 million.
