Lethbridge City Hall. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge to lose up to $930,000 annually from traffic ticket and provincial building changes

Oct 31, 2019 | 2:03 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The City of Lethbridge could lose nearly one million dollars every year thanks to two changes made by the provincial government.

Premier Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party unveiled their first budget last week, which promises a level of fiscal restraint that would help to balance the budget by 2023.

Lethbridge Mayor Chris Spearman gave his general thoughts on the budget last week, but has now learned new information on how it will impact the city going forward.

LNN asked Spearman about funding for police services in Lethbridge after an article from CBC claimed that Calgary Police Service see a reduction of $12-million in funding.

The mayor explains that the cuts in Cow Town come from the province taking a larger portion of traffic tickets that are issued.

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According to Spearman, the Government of Alberta will now take 40% of all funds from traffic violations, compared to 27% prior. This is expected to decrease funds to the City of Lethbridge by anywhere from $530,000-$830,000 per year.

The difference between Calgary and Lethbridge, however, is that in Calgary, revenues from traffic fines go directly into funding police operations, while in Lethbridge, that money goes into general revenues that fund everything in the city including the police.

Because of this distinction, Spearman believes Lethbridge is well-equipped for the change.

“We think we can manage the cuts and we’re looking forward to working with the province on the issues that’re important to the City of Lethbridge and our citizens.”

At the same time, Lethbridge City Council voted this week to look into potentially hiring another eight police officers. More details here.

The other major adjustment will be for grants-in-lieu.

Instead of paying property taxes on provincially-owned facilities like schools, hospitals, and the Lethbridge Provincial Building for Alberta Health Services, the government gives municipalities grants instead.

Spearman says the province will be giving smaller grants-in-lieu from now on, meaning that Lethbridge will get approximately $100,000 less annually.

“It’s a savings to them, but it’s a revenue loss to us.”

Between traffic violations and grants-in-lieu, the City of Lethbridge can expect to see a reduction of $630,000-$930,000 each year.

However, Spearman tells LNN that he would rather focus more of his efforts on what the province can do for the City of Lethbridge rather than what it will not.

“What we’re looking for is commitments on things like supportive housing, so the $13-million approval last year [for rehabilitative housing], we’re hoping that’ll happen. We’ll get some funding for affordable housing, we’ll get funding for the SCAN [Safe Communities and Neighbourhoods] service to shut down drug houses or we’ll get the actual service.”

As well, the UCP announced earlier this year that funding will be coming for the implementation of another 4,000 treatment and recovery beds.

Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf told LNN on Wednesday that we can expect announcements in the next couple of weeks for which communities will be receiving funding for different initiatives.