SUNDRE - The provincial budget recently tabled by the UCP did not yield any unexpected bombshell surprises, said Sundre’s director of corporate services.
Although Chris Albert said during an interview last Wednesday, March 4 that he’d mostly only perused headlines without yet having had a chance to delve into the document in detail, nothing he had seen struck him as particularly shocking.
“I haven’t heard anything overly surprising. It’s kind of more of the same that came out last year,” said Albert.
“From what I’ve heard and noticed, it’s all stuff that we knew about and are already incorporating into our plans.”
Among those anticipated changes is the new police funding model, which “is of course going to cost us more. So we’re looking at how to deal with that.”
In terms of capital spending, the municipality plans to not be dependent on extra funds from the government, he said.
“Whatever they come up with will basically be a bonus.”
The education requisition’s increase, which went up about four per cent, is also right in the ballpark of what Albert had expected. Due to how the municipality set its tax rates last year, he said a portion of that increase has been mitigated.
However, until the municipality’s assessment data is compiled and analyzed and the mill rate subsequently set by council — which is expected to happen either later this month or early in April — there remains some uncertainty, he said.
“That (process) will firm up what we need in terms of revenue this year.”
But from the information he’d seen to date, Albert said there are no major changes that weren’t already anticipated.
In 2020-21, the municipality is earmarked to receive about $32,000 in Municipal Sustainable Initiative operational funding, which is consistent with recent years, with another $645,000 for capital expenses, which is fairly consistent with the average. Those numbers are, however, preliminary and subject to change, he said.
Overall, the provincial budget deficit for 2019-20 is $7.5 billion, less than the $8.7 billion originally forecast. However, overall debt is expected to hit $68 billion in 2020, reaching $77 billion by the end of March 2021. The government claims the province is on a path to a balanced budget by 2022-23.
Mayor Terry Leslie also did not find anything particularly surprising in the budget, but nevertheless takes issue with the provincial government’s decision to download costs onto the shoulders of municipalities that are already struggling to make ends meet.
“We saw the province elect a government to pull back on spending, and that’s what’s happened,” he said.
The mayor said his concern for the municipality, from a personal perspective, stems from how one level of government has decided to impose upon a lower level of government the task of taking funds from taxpayers.
“The police funding model is the one I take issue with,” he said.
While he agrees municipalities must work alongside the provincial government to find solutions, the new cost for policing will in the end come out of the same pocket, possibly in the form of increased residential taxes.
“It’s something we have to examine quite seriously. We have to figure out how we’re a part of the solution with the province by looking within our own house,” he said.
“There’s a call for all of us in government to look at what we’re doing. Maybe we need to roll back services as well.”
When asked his thoughts on the government’s claims that maintained levels of funding in the face of a growing and aging population as well as rising inflation do not amount to cuts, the mayor said, “What I see in our community, I see an anxiety level that is rising.”
Funding has indeed been maintained, but community resource and service organizations such as the Greenwood Neighbourhood Place Society, which recently reduced its office hours to three days a week from four, are nevertheless coping with cuts, he said.
“I struggle in rural Alberta looking at how we don’t have (some) provincial services. We have evolved to have services provided by volunteers in many cases.”
People don’t typically like change, and times of transition tend to fuel anxiety, he said.
“There are some perceived threats to things that happen in our community.”
During its upcoming spring workshop, council will be discussing how to maintain optimism and hope for the cherished lifestyle people are blessed to be able to enjoy in rural Alberta, he said.
Having lived through the Ralph Klein-era cuts, the mayor said he was not as of yet concerned about the expected loss of 1,400 public sector jobs, largely through attrition, even as Alberta’s population continues to grow.
“I watched as the provincial government of the day had to pull back. And it was met with the same level of frustration, anxiety, depression,” he said.
On the upside, he said the municipality has experienced a bit of growth as well as business interest, with actual income coming in a bit higher than projected.
Asked for his thoughts on whether there is any reason to believe the energy war room, which has been allocated more than $120 million over the next four years while the public sector is absorbing cuts, is a worthy investment of tax dollars, he said, “I haven’t seen any evidence yet.”
To be fair, he said many government initiatives require incubation time.
But he also agreed the industry is already plenty capable of lobbying for itself, through already well-established organizations such as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. However, mixed messaging from the provincial and federal governments is not conducive to incentivizing investor confidence, he added.
The mayor also agreed the war room has no control over the price of oil, which — taxes and climate policy aside — is the main factor that will drive investment in Alberta’s patch. He added that he would continue keeping an eye on the Canadian Energy Centre to see whether it generates any kind of return for the substantial cost to taxpayers.
Asked how claims that Alberta’s economy is so bad and that spending is beyond our means reconcile with the fact our province has among the lowest debt-to-GDP ratios of all the provinces, he said, being clear not to point to any level of government or party, that making claims that the “sky is falling” is a political strategy.
That’s among the reasons politicians are not always widely trusted, he said, as making claims that turn out to be exaggerated undermines people’s faith in elected officials.
Throughout the province, he said there has already been some push back on many of the proposed changes and cuts, citing as an example the recent doctor’s town hall at the Sundre Community Centre.
“At least it’s getting people more engaged. The greatest threat to democracy is apathy,” he said, encouraging people not to hesitate to contact their representatives, from the municipal level on up to federal, to express any concerns on their minds.
