BOYLE – Village of Boyle councillors are hoping to get an audience with Municipal Affairs minister Ric McIver during the upcoming Alberta Municipalities (AM) fall convention Sept. 27-29 and want to talk about funding.
At the July 5 regular council meeting, CAO Warren Griffin suggested they could discuss Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) funding, although from what he's heard the formula will be per capital based and “for a small municipality that’s not always a good thing.”
LGFF will replace the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) in 2024, and according to the provincial government’s website, will provide $722 million in capital dollars for municipalities.
“No matter what the formula, they’re going to have to have some sort of modifier or adjustment. As it is, square pegs fit into square holes, but when a round peg needs to fit into that square hole, you’ll need to do some modifying,” said mayor Colin Derko. “It’s absolutely a concern for us, because how do we sustain and how do we move forwards when we have no dollars?”
Besides the LGFF funding, councillors found themselves at a bit of a loss for topics, as following the 2023 provincial election, some departmental shakeup at the provincial level has taken away some responsibilities from Municipal Affairs, such as public safety.
“There’s lots of things we would like to talk about, but you’ve got to keep it within the ministry and sometimes that’s a struggle,” said Derko.
Another possibility he suggested was talking about why certain grants come from different places.
“You could talk to them more about grant funding in the sense of, why is Alberta Transportation managing grant funding for infrastructure property,” said Griffin. “Shouldn’t municipal granting be handled by Municipal Affairs?”
Councillors have until July 12 to get their ideas into Griffin, who will submit them to the ministry before the July 13 deadline.
