Through its 2014 budget, the Redford government has set aside $31 million for bridge construction projects across the province and has increased Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding for Red Deer and Mountain View counties.
Such promises will come as good news to the leaders of Red Deer and Mountain View counties who were hoping for cash to repair or replace crumbling bridges and roads and for more MSI money this year.
Red Deer County will receive a total of $6,893,452 in MSI dollars from the province, an increase from $6,042,000 last year, and Mountain View County will receive $4,890,132, up from $4,374,000 in 2013.
Part of the reason the MSI funding for each county has increased, even though the amount of MSI operating money has dropped this year for both counties, is because the province has included Basic Municipal Transit Grant cash as part of the total MSI allocation this year.
Cash from the MSI program is used to build, restore or maintain infrastructure projects such as roads, storm systems and fire service systems.
Overall, the provincial government pledged $2 billion in direct funding for Alberta's municipalities and $6.6 billion for essential infrastructure as part of its 2014 budget.
The province will also increase the amount of cash in the MSI capital fund to $150 million over the next three years.
Other budget highlights the region may benefit from are a pledged investment of $31 million for wildfire protection— including cash for hiring more firefighters— a $21 million injection for the maintenance of irrigated farmland and increased funding for women's emergency shelters to the tune of $3.8 million, coupled with a promise to fund more than 3,200 emergency or transitional shelter spaces.
As promised last fall, Sundre will benefit from a $3.8-million grant through the Affordable Supportive Living Initiative that will help pay for the construction of 40 new supportive living spaces in the community.
And Alberta Health Services will have its funding increased to $10.7 billion, up from $10.5 billion in last year's budget.
When it tabled the budget on the afternoon of March 6, the government announced it had dug its way out of last year's $6-billion shortfall and tallied up an operational surplus of $2.6 billion.
Thanks to higher oil prices, the weak Loonie and increased personal and corporate income tax revenue, the province's total revenue forecast for 2014-15 is $44.4 billion, up 5.4 per cent from last year.
A growing population, higher wages and a strong economy are also credited for tax revenue forecasted at $21.1 billion, a five per cent increase from last year.
There are no new taxes or tax increases this year and the health-care, education and human service sectors can expect $1 billion in operating cash in 2014-15.
Such spending “will mean more doctors, nurses and other essential front-line supports for Albertans” said Finance Minister Doug Horner in his budget speech.
Altogether, the government plans to spend $40.4 billion in operating cash this year.
Through the province's capital plan, infrastructure investment— supported through borrowing—will be $19.2 billion over the next three years and is meant to handle the province's growing population.
That cash is going towards the rehabilitation of 2,500 kilometres of highway, the twinning or creation of 258 kilometres of highway, 24 health facility projects, 155 school projects and seven post-secondary projects.
The province has also pledged $859 million for flood recovery projects, especially mitigation efforts aimed at reducing the impact of future flood events, and $4 million is going towards helping southern Alberta's flood-affected fisheries and aquatic habitats recover.
Cash dedicated to the servicing of the capital debt is $421 million.
As for savings, Edmonton is expecting to bank $23.9 billion by the end of the fiscal year and $26 billion by the end of 2016-17.
The provincial contingency account will be topped up at $5 billion in 2014-15 and the budget commits $1.4 billion to the creation of new endowments while adding to the Heritage Scholarship Fund.
While Premier Alison Redford called her government's 2014-15 fiscal plan “Alberta's first balanced budget in six years,” the Wildrose Party has criticized the government in a media release for tabling the “highest spending budget in Alberta's history” and remaining “steadfast on the path of growing Alberta's total debt load, saddling taxpayers with hundreds of millions of dollars in interest payments and further jeopardizing the delivery of core services.”
“Despite revenues projected to be the highest in Alberta history at $44.4 billion, the PCs will run a consolidated cash deficit of $2.7 billion and take on an additional $5.1 billion in debt,” the party stated in the release.
“Budget 2014 also affirms that Alberta taxpayers will carry $21 billion in total debt by 2016. That means $820 million in interest payments alone that will be diverted away from every day services Albertans rely on like education, health care and policing.”
