The coming years will be tight for small Foothills municipalities as the Province works to reduce its debt.
As the UCP government rolls out its budget, Turner Valley Mayor Barry Crane expects the Town will be in for tough times.
“For Turner Valley, we’re definitely looking at tough decisions, just like this government is making, and we’re going to do our best to balance every need and requirement of the town against the customer service level our residents expect,” he said. “Hard choices are going to have to be made.”
The UCP budget, initially released last fall with more details provided on Feb. 27, reveals an increase in education tax of 4.2 per cent and a new funding model that will see rural communities pay a portion of policing costs.
“Council’s concerns are more in line with the downloading of costs directly to the taxpayers that we have no influence on or the capability to manage – education being one and policing being another,” said Crane.
He’s also concerned about cuts to seniors’ housing initiatives, affordable housing and rental supplemental programs.
“That will affect a few of our citizens in the Foothills region, as well as making it difficult for seniors,” he said.
The Province announced significant cuts to capital investments in affordable housing for the development of new units, as well as maintaining and repairing existing units.
While municipalities are in for some tough times, Crane said it’s not all bad news.
The Province increasing policing resources by adding 300 more officers over five years will help address rural crime, he said, and its announcement to cut back on red tape will reduce administration time in processing paperwork.
In addition, Crane said the $42 million being allocated to Travel Alberta and Tourism will attract more people to Alberta, and could have a direct impact on the region.
“We look to capitalize on our magnificent towns and territory and highlight some of our businesses along the Cowboy Trail,” he said. “We’re going to focus on tourism in the next couple of years and hopefully that will help our area thrive economically.”
In Black Diamond, chief administrative officer Sharlene Brown expects a few challenges as the Town moves ahead to determine its own budget and tax rates for property owners.
“There was a number of changes that are going to be affecting our municipal budget,” she said. “The provincial downloading is quite significant and it’s going to have an impact and it won’t be due to municipal spending.”
The provincial education property tax requisition increase is just one, said Brown. With a drop in property assessments, homeowners will pay $924 in education taxes for the average $350,000 home in 2020, down from $945 last year, but it will be a hit to businesses, she said.
“If you have a business worth $500,000, it’s $1,940 compared to last year’s $1,860,” she said. “Businesses are getting hit really hard. The price of non-residential keeps going up so it makes it very difficult and it’s not even in our control. There are outside forces that are influencing the increased costs.”
Policing costs is another component that will hit property owners hard, Brown said.
“In the first year it’s $53,623, then it will go up annually to the amount of $160,968 by 2023,” she said. “The policing comes directly out of operations and you have a $50,000 hit to your bottom line. What has to go to keep that up? There’s a significant amount of offloading and that’s not even looking at what it takes for us to do operations.
“People don’t have as many available dollars so there needs to be a different way of looking at things.”
In December, Black Diamond council approved a maximum 1.5 per cent increase over 2019 for the Town’s 2020 operating costs, which Brown said will be especially challenging now.
“As the budget document rolls out we’re not exactly sure what clauses impact the municipality and what clauses don’t,” she said. “We will just have to see how it’s going to impact the day-to-day lives of the people in the municipality.
“We just have to incorporate the changes into our budget deliberations and hopefully they’re not going to impact the citizens of Black Diamond very much.”
