The Alberta Party would work with the City of Red Deer

Municipalities provide the majority of services we use on a daily basis, including water, transit, recreation, fire protection, sewer, policing, roads and parks. Even though municipalities own 60% of all public infrastructure and deliver critical services, they only receive 8 cents of every dollar paid in taxes to all levels of government.

“For too long, municipalities have not been treated as an equal partner with the provincial government. The Alberta Party would enter into a new partnership with the City of Red Deer,” said Red Deer North Alberta Party candidate Krystal Kromm.

“Under the PCs, municipal governments are reliant on grants from the other orders of government and are only allowed to raise money through the property tax and user fees. The City of Red Deer needs stable and predictable funding,” said Red Deer South Alberta Party candidate Serge Gingras.

Our municipalities face some key challenges and the Alberta Party would address them head on.

“The Alberta Party believes we can make Alberta stronger by making our municipalities stronger,” said Alberta Party leader Greg Clark.

The Alberta Party will enter into a new partnership with municipalities. Here are 7 actions the Alberta Party would take to help make the City of Red Deer better a place:

1. Stop Ignoring the Housing Crisis:
fund the construction of quality social housing, including seniors housing

• assist renters and homeowners by following Ontario’s lead and legalize secondary suites throughout the province and reform the building code to make it easier to build safe secondary suites

2. Reduce congestions by investing in Transit

• make investments in bus based transit systems.

• follow the federal government’s lead and create a permanent fund dedicated to supporting transit in our cities.

3. Fund Family and Community Services (FCSS)

• FCSS is a program fund by the Province and municipalities to provide social service programs that are tailored to the local community. Unlike the PCs, the Alberta Party would properly fund it.

4. Provide stable and predictable funding

• The Alberta Party would provide municipalities with stable and predictable funding by allocating a percentage of income tax revenues to fund municipal infrastructure. We would also work with municipalities to determine other stable and predictable revenue streams, such as a hotel room tax.

5. Allow regionalization to fix the revenue imbalance

• The Alberta Party would allow for the creation of more regional municipalities, such as Fort McMurray, so that towns and cities which provide services to the residents of the region can share in the property tax and linear assessment revenue generated in the region.

6. Create City Charters for Calgary and Edmonton

• New legislation would provide Calgary and Edmonton with much more flexibility in structuring their local governments in a manner that makes sense for a big city It would also provide the city with greater authority on matters where the city has significant expertise, such as planning, environmental remediation and housing.

7. Modernize the Municipal Government Act

• Municipalities need to be treated as an equal partner in government in our province. The Alberta Party believes that the Municipal Government Act needs to be reformed to recognize that municipalities are duly elected governments and are accountable to their citizens.