Neither the Town of Olds nor Olds College were surprised with what the 2014 provincial budget, tabled March 6, had in store for them.
Neither the Town of Olds nor Olds College were surprised with what the 2014 provincial budget, tabled March 6, had in store for them.
"We haven’t lost anything and we’ve gained a little," said Mayor Judy Dahl, pointing out that one of the most important provincial sources of cash the town receives, municipal sustainability initiative (MSI) funding, has increased.
The province has pledged a total of $2,262,263 in MSI funding, which is meant for community infrastructure projects, this year, compared to a total of $1,718,764 last year.
While the total amount of MSI operating funding has decreased from 2013, capital funding has increased and the province has also rolled a Basic Municipal Transit Grant cash totalling $510,000 into Olds’ MSI funding.
Dahl said the town had asked for increased capital funding over operating money.
"Because really our capital is our infrastructure and we mostly use our capital in Olds for water main replacements and trails and pathways and open-space parks."
A great deal of the MSI cash, she added, will go towards improvements in the uptowne core scheduled for this summer.
The budget also included a grant of $39,502 for the Olds Municipal Library and the regional Family and Community Support Services will receive $911,000, Dahl said.
One area of funding the town is still waiting for details on and that Dahl said she is following "very closely" is the municipal policing assistance grant, which helps communities pay for their police forces.
Last year, the town received less than expected from the province for policing assistance.
Although the town was hoping for $300,000, it received $265,880 through the grant, along with an additional $125,000 grant to cover one more police officer in the community.
The year before, Olds received $257,984 through the policing assistance grant and $100,000 towards an additional officer.
Dahl said she wants to see those dollars go up.
"We’re very concerned about where we’re going with that policing because it’s really hit us hard," she said, adding the town is losing "half a tax rate" when it expects $300,000 and only gets $265,000.
The town is responsible for covering 74 per cent of the cost of policing in the community—the other 26 per cent comes from Ottawa— and the cost of Olds’ police contract in 2013, as determined by the RCMP’s K Division, was $1,086,710.
What’s not covered through the assistance grant is paid for by municipal taxes.
Garth Lucas, the town’s corporate services director, said the town will also receive additional invoices from the RCMP for extra services such as when canine or crime scene investigation services come to town.
Because the size of the provincial assistance grant is based on population, he added, the town carries out its census programs to monitor community growth and "maximize" the amount of money it receives from Edmonton.
Dahl said she’s expecting more details about what Olds will receive through the 2014 budget in the coming days and overall, she added, the town is pleased with what the province has pledged for the town.
"We’re happy. Yeah, we could do better but you can’t get greedy either. You have to work within your means. We are still firm that we want to be a municipality that doesn’t depend on government funding."
'Better than last year’
Jordan Cleland, Olds College’s vice-president of advancement, said the college learned what it would get out of the 2014 provincial budget roughly two hours after it was tabled and the school’s administration had received word from civil servants beforehand that it could expect a zero per cent increase to its operating funding.
"Which doesn’t sound like wonderful news but when it follows a -9.3 (per cent funding year), it is," he said, adding the province has promised the college a base operating grant of more than $27 million, which is what the school received in 2013.
An adjustment to the college’s provincial funding of more than $689,000 that was announced in November will also be rolled into that base grant, Cleland said.
"It’s better than last year."
Through its 2013 budget, the provincial government cut funding to the college by 7.3 per cent when the school had actually expected a two per cent increase in funding.
To balance its 2013 budget, the school reduced 25 full-time staff positions while college management took a three per cent rollback in salary and performance-based pay was frozen for the fiscal year. The college’s office administration program was also transferred to Red Deer College as a result of the shortfall in provincial funding.
Cleland said this year’s provincial budget does contain a "few little kind of helpful nuggets" for the college.
The school will receive funding for 75 new trade seats as well as $160,000 to offset increased enrolment in the college’s fashion program at its Calgary campus.
Cleland said he’s also happy the province is re-establishing the Access to the Future Renaissance Fund that was suspended in 2010.
With monies funded off of the provincial Heritage Savings Trust Fund, the matching fund is used to match donations made to the college up to a limit of $1.2 million.
"For example, I could ask you for a $100,000 gift and you’d be humming and hawing," Cleland said. "I’d say, well, we will match it. So your $100,000 will have leveraged and allow us to get $200,000 for the good uses and purposes of Olds College."
The province is also funding a new endowment off of the Alberta Heritage Scholarship Fund called the Agriculture and Food Innovation Endowment that will benefit the college, he said.
Since the college won’t roll out its own budget for 2014 until the spring, Cleland said the school doesn’t know what changes, if any, may be necessary due to the amount of provincial funding allocated this year.
"We have that luxury, we get to wait and see what the government’s budget is in March. And then we’ve got the next two months to best apportion it for the benefit of the college."
He added the college did learn to live with what it received last year.
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