Municipalities minister creates council exploring ways to increase infrastructure funding

The Alberta government says it's assembling a team to come up with new ways to fund municipal infrastructure.

Alberta’s municipal affairs minister has assembled a panel of stakeholders to look for ways to increase funding for infrastructure projects without raising taxes.

Dan Williams announced his minister’s council on Tuesday in Jasper, which is hosting an annual meeting of provincial and territorial municipal ministers on Wednesday and Thursday.

The panel includes representatives of several communities and industries from across the province, and is tasked with examining how infrastructure is financed, identifying gaps and recommending practical solutions.

“The hope is that the council will be able to report back to government before the end of the year with its recommendations on what this path forward for Alberta and the country can look like,” Williams said at a media conference.

The council is being established in collaboration with a working group on alternative infrastructure financing by Building Industry and Land Development – Alberta (BILD Alberta), which represents various sectors of the construction development industry.

Williams said the council will look at several approaches, including methods of alternate financing, partnerships with private industry, and processes used in other places.

He said the infrastructure gap is “driving a productivity gap and a quality of life gap, not just between different municipalities, but as a Canadian jurisdiction compared to the rest of the world.”

With Alberta’s population rising year over year – it’s projected to surpass British Columbia’s in the next 25 years – and with municipalities facing sizable deficits in infrastructure funding, Williams said the goal of the new council is “to legislatively enable a practical toolkit of options for municipalities that they can draw on beyond just increasing taxes based on what works best for the local needs.”

“This isn’t about replacing existing funding, either, and how we fund municipalities,” he said. “It’s about expanding options for infrastructure and funding the future.”