Local budget interests need explanation
By Collin Gallant on March 23, 2018.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant Two of the most important items for the City of Medicine mentioned in the 2018-19 Alberta provincial are also two of the least explained. The province plans to put money to enticing mid-sized cities to create a public transit system to connect outlying communities, though no details are available. The province also plans to end the Municipal Sustainability Infrastructure grant program for cities after 2021, replacing it with a revenue-sharing model that some municipalities have advocated for. The City of Medicine Hat and Town of Redcliff studied last year the possibility of extended local routes to the town on the western city limits, but it was considered too costly. The scope of new programs is not yet known, but media reports state the new program will give mid-sized cities the opportunity to develop public service to connect smaller outlying towns. “We’re always willing to talk about working collaboratively with our neighbours,” said public services commissioner Karen Charlton. “We’ll need to know the details, before (pursuing) it.” Specific to Medicine Hat, no new capital spending was announced. The city will see money for housing, though no detailed schedule was presented. Also local programs will benefit from funding increases, including measures to cover cancelled school fees, and rural crime prevention. There are no tax changes announced, though since incomes are expected to rise, more money should be collected on the same rates. The government appears to be banking on increased resource revenue and recovering economic activity — which is expected to see the highest growth in the country this year — to eat into a deficit projected to be $8.8 billion. “Only the NDP could think this is ‘restraint,” stated UCP finance critic Drew Barnes, the MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat. “This so-called ‘balanced budget’ plan is based on unrealistic revenue growth of 38 per cent between now and 2023.” Earlier this month, Energy Minister Marg Boyd-McCuaig announced $2 billion in support for energy diversification programs, including $500 million for a second round of a program to help spur petrochemical plant construction. That is of interest to Medicine Hat as local company Methanex has said it’s in favour of the program, having submitted its proposed $1.3 billion expansion into round one. The MSI program was created by Premier Ed Stelmach more than 10 years ago, and ever since, municipal administrators have worried about continuation or amounts. Most recently it provided about $11 million in money directly to the City of Medicine Hat that could be spent on a wide array of infrastructure projects, largely at the city’s discretion. The money was used locally in recent years to convert street lights to use lower-cost, longer-lasting LED bulbs, firehall relocation and the Veiner Centre rebuild. MSI grants will drop to about $668 million province-wide with the same amount earmarked for 2019-2020. However, much of the decrease was front-ended to cities with extra money this past year, when $2.1 billion was spent. As for bus service, Transportation Minister Brian Mason tipped the media to the program on Wednesday. The Saskatchewan government faced harsh criticism in 2017 when it closed a government-run bus service it says was a low-use, high-cost agency. Remaining in the budget is previously announced $4 million in funding for “East Campus” development at Medicine Hat College. Further renovations at the recently expanded Medicine Hat Regional Hospital are budgeted to cost $13 million this years and totalling an additional $32 million over three years. Unfunded priorities in the Medicine Hat or the near region include hoped-for renovations at Connaught School and Burdett School in the Prairie Rose School Division. A plan to rework the intersection of Highways 1 and 3, in Medicine Hat, with a new interchange also remains on the unfunded list. 25
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