Rural Municipalities of Alberta (Image Credit: RMA)

By rdnewsNOW Staff

rural infrastructure deficit

RMA’s “Closing the Gap” campaign seeks to partner with government to support rural infrastructure

Jan 16, 2026 | 3:41 PM

The Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) has launched Closing the Gap: The Rural Infrastructure Funding Deficit, a five‑week public awareness and advocacy campaign intended to highlight and propose solutions to Alberta’s growing rural infrastructure deficit.

Officials say the campaign explains the scale of the challenge, proposes practical solutions, and calls for partnership and collaboration between the Alberta government and rural municipalities to support long‑term economic growth and community resilience through effective management of and investment in core rural infrastructure.

The RMA points out that rural municipalities own and operate the majority of Alberta’s road, bridge, and utility infrastructure. Officials say these assets support residents, communities, and the resource‑based and emerging industries that drive Alberta’s economy. However, the RMA says chronic underfunding, escalating construction costs, and increasingly constrained municipal budgets have accelerated the deterioration of these essential systems, posing risks for rural communities and the industries that power Alberta’s economy.

The RMA says the Closing the Gap campaign builds on RMA’s Rural Municipal Infrastructure Deficit Project (RMIDP), released in 2024. The organization say the RMIDP used an innovative methodology to assess the condition of rural infrastructure and quantify the funding shortfall facing municipalities.

Officials say the results were stark: Alberta’s rural infrastructure deficit exceeded $17 billion in 2023 and was projected to surpass $25 billion by 2025 without provincial intervention.

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“It may surprise many Albertans that rural municipalities manage a larger infrastructure portfolio than anyone else in the province, including the Government of Alberta,” says RMA President Kara Westerlund, in a press release. “This infrastructure is vital to economic growth across the province, but rural municipalities are increasingly challenged to manage an aging network while also investing in upgrades and expansion to support new industrial opportunities.”

“RMA’s ‘Closing the Gap’ campaign has two purposes: to raise government and public awareness on the importance of rural infrastructure and the challenges rural municipalities face in managing it, and to drive a partnership between the Government of Alberta and rural municipalities to support this infrastructure in a way that reflects its critical importance to our province,” adds Westerlund.

Over the coming weeks, the RMA says the Closing the Gap campaign will explore the economic impacts of deteriorating infrastructure, the burden facing taxpayers, and the need for predictable, equitable provincial funding. Officials say the campaign will also summarize RMA’s recommendations for Budget 2026, which include:

• Collaborative Development of Fair and Predictable Funding Approaches: Co‑develop funding principles, allocation approaches, and decision‑making frameworks that reflect rural cost drivers and support multi‑year planning.
• Short‑Term Stabilization Funding Through Increases to Existing Programs: Provide immediate, stopgap increases to LGFF and STIP to stabilize critical rural roads and bridges and prevent escalating costs from deferred maintenance.
• Long‑Term Funding Reform, Province‑Wide Condition Assessment Strategy, and Asset Management Support: Develop a province‑wide condition assessment framework, a risk‑based prioritization matrix, and innovation funding, while strengthening municipal asset management capacity.