CALGARY — Some city councillors, and a council watcher, are calling for planned capital projects to be re-examined in the wake of provincial budget decisions that impact the city’s financial situation.
The Alberta budget, unveiled by the UCP government last week, delays funding for the Green Line LRT mega project and sends the city $71 million less in Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding for the next two years. The latter move affects a portion of the city’s budget that’s usually used to build or repair roads, bridges and other city infrastructure.
Some believe other projects, such as the BMO Centre expansion, new field house, Arts Commons upgrades and new arena, also need to be looked at and considered if they should be delayed or cancelled.
"Frankly, everything is on the table when it comes to our budget discussions this coming November,” said Coun. Evan Woolley on Tuesday.
Funding for the four big projects doesn’t directly come from the province, but council could decide to defer some of the plans if other projects are deemed a priority and money is needed.
"The only question is, would council be interested in using some of the unrestricted funding that's going to the arena on something else? That's a decision council will have to make,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
Critics say the tighter provincial budget should force council to cancel some of the projects that are “wants, not must-haves.”
"First things first, city council needs to renege on the arena deal,” said Franco Terrazzano with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“They need to get that money back, back to taxpayers. Council should have never rubber-stamped hundreds of millions of dollars for a professional arena."
The new $550 million home for the Calgary Flames sees the city and Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation each putting $275 million toward construction costs.
"What's critical is we have a private partner contributing 50 per cent of the capital and we're getting a revenue share out of that deal,” said Coun. Jeff Davison.
“That's what we need to look at in terms of reducing the costs of government."
Calgary council will start discussing its municipal budget at the end of November.
