CALGARY — Alberta municipalities will be losing $113 million in assistance grants by 1997 as the province continues to wipe out its deficit.
“The province can no longer borrow money to subsidize the actual cost of municipal services,” said Steve West, minister of municipal affairs.
In 1994-95 available grant money will drop from $113 million to $90.4 million. The following year total payments to municipalities will be $60 million. In 1996-97 there will be a 58 percent reduction, and $25 million of the total will be committed to help municipalities with a population under 10,000, said West.
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The municipal debenture program will remain untouched. This program subsidizes municipalities for high borrowing costs for capital projects from 1974 to 1982.
School taxes will be frozen at the 1992-93 level for 1994.
Not a surprise
The cuts were not a total surprise to municipalities.
“As far as municipalities are concerned we’re going to have to look at doing things in a different way. We’re going to have to look at shared services,” said Roelof Heinen. He is president of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties. There are 26 municipal districts and 30 counties in the province.
The province has taken over school superintendent appointments and the 140 school boards will be merged into 60. The province will also collect school taxes and redistribute them.
“We haven’t anticipated where the province is going on this … we’re all kind of waiting to see what happens,” said Sheldon Steinke of the county of Lethbridge.
He doesn’t know if the mid-sized school board will merge with a larger board or become the central body.
Several counties contacted said their budgets were already in line because they anticipated big reductions in government grants.
Budget plan presented
When the provincial budget is tabled, each government department must present a three-year business plan. Some municipal governments plan to follow suit.
“We were very close to being on target in predicting what they did and what we planned to do,” said Steinke. The county of Lethbridge will write its own three-year plan once it’s seen the provincial budget.
George Huybregts of the county of Strathcona, the largest in the province, said councillors built a conservative budget and will write up a three-to-five-year business plan this year. County officials will look at the services they provide and how they can be done more efficiently.
“As individual taxpayers you don’t want to see your taxes go up. So the responsible approach is to look at alternative service methods,” he said.
Alternatives may include finding volunteers to look after town parks and ball diamonds.
In the county of Stettler, manager Nick Fakas said services that were once free will perhaps carry a charge to make up for budget shortfalls. Snow plowing farm lanes and oiling roads for dust control may cost the recipients this year. So far ratepayers haven’t complained about these changes, he said.
