Alberta's provincial budget comes out tomorrow, Feb. 29, and Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown is hoping it includes support for local projects.
Last week, Premier Danielle Smith announced lower resource revenues requiring the province to show more restraint than previously predicted while saving for the future.
Brown called this statement disappointing.
“It's great to save money for the future, but if we're not investing in our municipalities today, it's gonna cost even more tomorrow,” he said.
The Government of Alberta encouraged people to come to the province to start a business and create a life in Alberta’s municipalities, Brown said, and he believes they need to invest in those municipalities now to provide services for their growing populations.
“We need recreation facilities, we need expanded water and wastewater treatment facilities, we need road network improvements, we need fire halls, police officers, it’s a significant undertaking,” he said.
Following the 2023 budget being released in Alberta last year, Brown criticized the government for not investing more into the City of Airdrie.
As a result, the City went into “full court press” in terms of advocacy, he said. They met with ministers and the premier and inundated them with information about one of the fastest growing municipalities in Canada and the fifth largest city in Alberta.
“The advocacy piece was stepped up significantly and I really believe the fruits of that labour and that exercise in working with our MLA's was really beneficial,” Brown said.
Some of the messaging revolved around Airdrie not being part of Calgary and having their own need for support, Brown added.
Brown noted there are plenty of local projects and initiatives he hopes will receive some provincial support. Schools were a big topic and have been for a number of years, he said.
“We're in the design phase of the rec centre in the southwest of the city, we have the existing multipurpose space and library, which is going on downtown, we have water and wastewater capacity issues, so we're gonna have to put in new pipe from Calgary to Airdrie,” Brown said, listing some projects.
The water and wastewater issue requires a significant investment, he explained. A grant program for water and wastewater projects currently only allows municipalities with a population under 35,000 to apply. Brown hopes this will be amended to allow the City of Airdrie to apply in the future.
“[The Town of] Okotoks gets tens of millions of dollars to help with their infrastructure and then you come to Airdrie at 80,000 plus and we don't qualify because our population is too large,” he said.
A lot of work has already gone into meeting with the minister on this issue, he added.
“We’re all provincial tax payers, we all contribute,” Brown said. “It’s great that those municipalities have access to those funds, but what about the rest of us?”
The City of Airdrie submitted a number of different proposals to help support local projects.
On the healthcare front, Brown hopes to see some funding for the possibility of a new urgent care centre.
“I don't know if we'll see it in this budget per se, but a decision could be made here in the next month or so, which is quite exciting,” he said.
In the last provincial budget, the government set aside $3 million for the planning of a North Calgary/Airdrie regional health centre.
Alberta's provincial budget will be released on Thursday, February 29 at approximately 3:15 pm.
Go to alberta.ca to learn more.
