ATHABASCA — The Town of Athabasca will be getting slightly more for its capital projects from the provincial government in 2025 than in 2024, but then slightly less the following year.
On Oct. 25, the provincial government sent out correspondence to municipalities detailing the anticipated amounts Alberta communities will receive for the 2025 and 2026 Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) for capital infrastructure in the next two years.
In 2026, LGFF program funding will total $800 million to be split between the local governments of communities across the province.
The Cities of Edmonton and Calgary will receive the lion's share, with $423 million to be divided between the urban centres, leaving $377 million to be dispersed to smaller cities, towns, villages, and counties.
“Compared to 2025, this is a decrease of 2.5 per cent, which is the same as the decrease in provincial revenues between 2022/2023 and 2023/2024,” wrote Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver.
While the total funding for LGFF has been reduced by 2.5 per cent, the impact of the reduction on each municipality’s allocation depends on different factors.
The funding formula for all communities outside of Edmonton and Calgary calculated using population, kilometres of local roads, tangible capital assets, and the amortization of those assets.
In 2024, the Town of Athabasca received $518,400 in LGFF funds; next year, the town is slated for an increase of almost $60,000, with $575,400 anticipated from the framework. The allocation for 2026 reflects a reduction, but the amount expected is still higher than that received this year, with $538,366 on the books for the town.
Town councillors accepted McIver’s letter as information during their Nov. 5 council meeting. Councillors also opted to schedule their next budget meeting for Nov. 12 at 5 p.m., where discussions on capital plans and commitments for the upcoming years will be deliberated.
“Any reduction affects us, but municipalities accepted the LFGG (being) tied to provincial revenues,” said Athabasca Mayor Rob Balay in a Nov. 7 follow-up interview.
“We knew going forward that there would be times when we would be getting less than the previous year, and times we knew we would be getting more from the previous year,”
“We will have to adjust our capital spending accordingly,” added Balay. “Certain projects may be scaled back a little bit, or if we don’t scale them back we have to be prepared to take out of our own reserves to fund the shortfall.”
