The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has reported that operating expenses of the majority of Alberta's municipalities have been rising at an “unsustainable” rate over the past 11 years.
Reeve Bruce Beattie, Mountain View County, says the CFIB should provide more evidence to back up its claims.
“I think we do everything we can to try to keep those costs in line, but I don't think they're out of line. And I think that if that group feels they are, well, they would have to provide a little more evidence than just suggesting they are,” said Beattie, after reading the report that was released on Sept. 18.
The report compares operational spending by Alberta municipalities between 2000 and 2011 to population growth over the same time period.
“Overall, Alberta's population grew by 24 per cent, while real operational spending by all municipalities rose by 78 per cent, more than three times faster,” the report states.
“Of the 181 municipalities with a population of at least 1,000, 92 per cent were spending at a faster rate on operations than the local population was increasing.”
Beattie said Mountain View County had zero municipal tax rate increases for the past two years and had a three per cent increase this year.
“That's simply a reflection of inflationary pressures. If everything else is going up around you, you just can't ignore those inflationary costs,” he said.
“Municipalities that I'm familiar with and councillors that I associate with anyways in the rural area certainly are always finding ways to keep costs down.
“At the same time, responding to the requests from both the municipalities who are within those counties to contribute towards some of their costs and to the demand of the citizens who often want more services or better services, whether it's roads or recreation or whatever. It's a constant effort to balance the requests from the citizenry and trying to keep those costs down.”
The report also states that based on information provided by Alberta Municipal Affairs, operating spending by Alberta municipalities totalled $7.6 billion in 2011 and 55 per cent was spent on salaries, wages and benefits.
Beattie said that percentage is a result of Alberta municipalities competing with the oil sector.
“We are often competing for the same kinds of skills in heavy equipment operation and in that area,” he said. “In order to attract people to rural areas, it certainly isn't always money, but that's going to be one of the factors to have quality and skilled people working for us.”
He said workers have to be compensated and there is a price they pay for not having some of the advantages they might have in an urban centre.
“We will never compete based on wages. We have to try to find other ways, whether it's job security or whether it's the communities that we provide and the workplace we provide, to make sure we're competitive there,” he said.
“You certainly have to compete in a very competitive marketplace in Alberta when we're competing against oil and gas sectors. We're also competing against large municipalities as well, like Calgary and Edmonton, that are very aggressive in their approach too.”
The CFIB report suggests that municipalities limit spending increases to the rate of population growth, conduct formal spending reviews, adopt sustainable wage growth policies, determine what services can be outsourced and create a municipal auditor general to scrutinize the spending practices of Alberta's municipalities.
