Katie Ryan
While Lloydminster will be receiving less than originally forecasted from the Alberta budget, the sum of money is still more than what was dolled out last year.
Alberta municipalities, outside of Calgary and Edmonton, will receive an estimated $460 million in Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI ) funding, which is $247 million more than last year.
The Border City will bank $3.5 million this year from the MSI program, well above the $1.5 million the city received in 2009, however, it falls short of the $7 million originally projected for the city this year.
“It’s more than we received previously, but it’s not as much as we had anticipated based on the way they saw the program rolling out during their term of office, but they’ve committed that they will hit their targeted objectives before the end of their term,” said Mayor Jeff Mulligan.
Other area communities will also receive a less than anticipated increase from the program. Vermilion will see about $800,000 added to their coffers, Wainwright roughly $1 million and Kitscoty will receive just over $210,000.
Mulligan said he is confident Alberta will live up to its commitment, just as Saskatchewan will with its revenue sharing program, which has currently frozen funding to its municipalities.
“Even with the difficult economic times, we ensured MSI funding increased this year in Budget 2010,” said Hector Goudreau, Minister of Municipal Affairs in a prepared statement. “While the annual funding is lower than what we had originally forecasted when we started this program in 2007, Alberta remains 100 per cent committed to the full $11.3 billion investment to municipalities over time.”
Mulligan said he was prepared for the worst leading up to the 2010 Alberta budget, which has the province in the red with a $4.7 billion deficit projected for 2010/11.
“In fact we probably anticipated them holding the line a little more stringently than they did,” continued Mulligan. “Maybe we were prepared for the worst, but hoping for the best. This means we don’t have to go out and stop important capital projects that we are going to use those monies for.”
With the figures released from the Alberta government and Saskatchewan’s budget due on March 24, the city is currently in the thick of their budget planning for 2010.
“I anticipate now with this data and some level of comfort with the Saskatchewan one (budget), that we should be in a position – I am hoping and pushing – that by the end of March we should have our budget completed and know exactly what is going to be done in the upcoming year,” said Mulligan, adding that its a “pensive” time for the city as both neighbouring provinces tighten their belts.
“We should be further along than we are in our budget planning but a number of things change in the finance department and with the two provinces warning of us a restraint budget period, we were a little bit pensive about making too many commitments and firming the budget up completely.”