Lethbridge mayor says Alberta budget is good news for the city

“I’d like to start off by congratulating the provincial government for delivering a balanced budget for 2022,” says Hyggen. “We knew going into this budget 2022, the province has continued to be, uh, to responsibly and sustainably invest in the infrastructure needs of communities.”

Shortly after the budget announcement, the mayor was able to speak directly with a few provincial ministers about some of the more specific details.

“It does look positive and to have them reach out and to explain some of the different things, especially when it comes to housing and homelessness and what that could look like in the future as well. We’re going to be digging deeper into that as well over the next few days, and so yes, I do see it as being positive for sure.”

Finances and the impact on the City of Lethbridge

Funding to the City of Lethbridge for 2022-23 under the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) will be $10.8 million while the city is expected to receive just over $6 million from the Canada Community Building Fund.

“We’re unsure yet how this funding will directly impact the City of Lethbridge, but we’ve known for several years that the MSI funding allocations will be lower. This was considered when the city had its most recent operating budget deliberations in late 2020, so we kept that in mind, knowing that that was going to be the case.”

The Alberta Government is set to have a new Local Government Fiscal Framework in 2024-25 and Hyggen said he is “pleased to be involved in this process and look forward to advocating, as always, in the best interests of Lethbridge.”

Regardless of what ends up happening with provincial funding to municipalities, the mayor assures that city council will do what it can to support its residents.

“City council’s focus for the duration of our term is on accountable spending and the need to be planning and budgeting the best possible way we can for our residents. Our internal budgeting processes allow us to accommodate provincial funding changes on a short-term basis. Long-term effects and changes will need to be further analyzed.”

“City Council and I will continue to ask and advocate for the needs of our community and look forward to partnering with the provincial government on finding solutions together.”

Healthcare

The budget includes $90 million per year to attract new family physicians to practice in rural and remote communities.

Details are sparse at this time as to where exactly that money will be going, but Hyggen says it is an issue he wants to learn more about soon.

“This is one of the top things that is a concern in our community, and it’s probably, I get the most emails on this than any other concern in our community and seeing this budget come out and the talk with the commitment to health care, I’m super excited to see that.”

Back in December, city council heard that approximately 43,000 people in Lethbridge and the surrounding area, or about one-quarter of the total population, do not have a family physician.

Lethbridge City Council is not able to directly affect things like funding for healthcare as that is a provincial matter, but Hyggen and the rest of council will do what they can to address the doctor shortage.

“We’ll continue to do our advocacy work that we’ve been doing, meeting with doctors, meeting with different groups to make sure that our questions are heard and that, when this funding is dispersed, that we’ll make sure that we’ve got that, as well as making sure that the recruitment is in full force.”

Hyggen also touched on the province’s new 10-point plan to address EMS capacity, which he says is another crucial issue that has plagued the city for years.

Post-Secondary Education

The budget shows that the Ministry of Advanced Education will see an overall increase to its operating expenses of $195 million.

At the same time, there are reports that Lethbridge College and the University of Lethbridge might be getting less funding for the upcoming year. LNN is still working on securing the exact numbers.

Hyggen stated that, because education is provincially-regulated and not handled by the city, he is not able to comment much.

He did, however, lend his support to the city’s post-secondary schools.

“Seeing what’s happening there with the university and the strike there, we need to make sure that we value the importance of the U of L and the college both and what they do in our community. All we can do is continue to advocate on their behalf.”

“Now, knowing that to have a balanced budget, there’s going to be some gives and takes, I guess, to get to that point. We just hope if there’s anything that we can do best is to advocate for additional funding for our post-secondary institutions.”

Utilities

Aside from the doctor shortage, Hyggen says the rising cost of utility bills is the issue he has been hearing about the most in recent months.

Budget 2022 includes the provision of the Energy Affordability Program, which will provide rebates to people who use less than 2,500 gigajoules annually. It is a temporary program that will be triggered if a company’s regulated rate is above $6.50/gigajoule.

He was encouraged to learn about this new program, but as it was not clear how much of a rebate people might be eligible for and therefore how much of a difference it would make, the mayor remained cautious.

Like all other matters relating to the provincial budget, it will likely still be days, if not longer, before we hear more about the specifics.

by David Opinko

Lethbridge mayor says Alberta budget is good news for the city

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