Mayor Nenshi of Calgary says the City of Calgary bleeds $15 million a week from lost revenue as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“…Edmonton City Council strongly feels deficits are the wrong course for our City in this crisis…without access to revenues that grow alongside economic recovery and quickly replenish our coffers, deficits could open up a financial sinkhole and erode the financial health of communities…
…Mayors across the province and country have been calling upon provinces and the federal government for the same kind of urgent liquidity injections that households and businesses have received…,” Mayor Don Iveson.
In a release on April 23, 2020, Alberta NDP, through Joe Ceci, NDP Official Opposition Critic for Municipal Affairs, is calling on the provincial government to provide immediate help to Alberta’s municipalities with a one-time doubling of its MSI transfer for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
The current Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) transfer is worth $960 million. The opposition is calling for this to be doubled to $1.92 billion, with the incremental increase to be used at the discretion of the municipalities and not bound by the usual MSI criteria. Ceci has outlined the proposal in a letter to municipal leaders.
“Local government is in the best position to determine local priorities, and they can get this investment out the door and into the economy quickly. Cities, towns and counties could choose to create jobs by accelerating capital projects, protect the existing jobs of municipal workers, support struggling social service or arts groups, or simply keep a lid on property tax increases,” MLA Ceci.
Ceci rejected the concept of allowing municipalities to run deficits or seek lines of credit.
