January 23, 2007

Alberta's municipalities get $1.4 billion infrastructure boost for growing pains

CALGARY

Struggling from unprecedented growth pressures, Alberta’s municipalities will get an injection of $1.4 billion worth of collected property tax annually over the next three years, Premier Ed Stelmach said.

Stelmach said he will live up to a campaign promise made during his successful leadership bid for Alberta’s ruling Tory party last November.

That includes returning $1.4 billion deducted from the education portion of property taxes to help pay for much needed infrastructure.

“The idea here is to help municipalities deal with all these growth pressures,’’ Stelmach said after a recent two-day retreat for the new cabinet to plan strategy for the coming year.

While Alberta’s two largest cities, Calgary and Edmonton, are trying to grapple with soaring population growth as a result of the province’s longest economic boom on record, many other cities and towns have the same problems, said Stelmach.

His promise to return equivalent property tax dollars came during the Tory leadership campaign late last year amid mounting pressure from Calgary and other cities for more provincial funding.

The premier said rather than face constitutional challenges for simply not collecting the school board portion of the property tax, he said an equivalent amount - about $1.4 billion - would be returned annually by 2009.

Stelmach said the amount returned in 2007 would be revealed this spring in the new government’s first budget.

“We’re going to see what fiscal room we have available,’’ he said adding the government would try thonour commitments made in the final months of Premier Ralph Klein’s reign.

Billions of dollars worth of roads, schools and hospitals are required throughout Alberta as the population increases by thousands of people each month, drawn by a critical labour shortage and massive construction boom.

Stelmach said that along with extra dollars, it was critical that the province reduce soaring costs on large projects.

CANADIAN PRESS

Print | Email | Comment