Emergent resolution: $1 billion boost to LGFF needed

An emergent resolution focused on Alberta Municipalities’ concerns about the provincial government’s chronic underfunding of Alberta’s communities will be put to a vote by more than 1,000 delegates at next week’s annual Convention.

The resolution, which is sponsored by ABmunis’ Board of Directors, calls for an increase to the starting amount of the provincial government's Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) capital funding program before it begins in 2024.

In 2011, the Government of Alberta provided a total of $420 per capita in provincial funding for municipal infrastructure. Since then, that amount has consistently dropped to only $151 per capita in 2023. In 2011, funding for local infrastructure represented 3.7 per cent of the provincial government’s spending. Today, it only accounts for just one per cent.

If the 2011 level of provincial funding had kept pace with inflation, then municipalities would have received $2.1 billion this year instead of just $712 million in community infrastructure funding.

ABmunis’ Board of Directors is seeking member support to advocate for the starting amount of LGFF capital funding to be set at $1.75 billion when the program gets underway next year. It is worth noting that this is well below the $2.5 billion that municipalities collect annually from local ratepayers on behalf of the provincial government in education property taxes.

While we have been working with the Minister of Municipal Affairs on the development of an LGFF allocation formula, the size of the funding pot will be the main determinant of how much funding communities receive in 2024 and thereafter.

We therefore encourage members to support this resolution when it comes up for a vote on September 28.