MSI cuts are a rollercoaster
Most municipal leaders likely scoured Thursday’s budget first for the skinny on the future of the MSI grant. The grant is the source of roughly one third of all grant money cities like Edmonton receive from the province. So, it’s a big deal.
How did the MSI fare? Thursday’s budget will see the MSI spike for the 2021-’22 fiscal year, to $1.26 billion, only to then fall to $515 million in each of the years that follow. It’s an incremental increase followed by another significant decrease.
Edmonton City Councillor Andrew Knack told Rage Against the Municipal that it’s a story best understood over time. For roughly five years, he said, the MSI has been shrinking, and municipalities and their residents have felt the pain. The cuts started with the former NDP government, which sliced into the MSI in partial exchange for the City Charters it signed with Calgary and Edmonton. The UCP’s first budget in 2019 only accelerated the slicing. The latest cut to the MSI is roughly 25 per cent over three years.“Let’s not forget that that [25 per cent] is based on a cut that already occurred in 2019, and a further cut that already occurred with the previous government,” Knack said.
The money for the City Charters with Calgary and Edmonton is up
Ha. Just kidding. The UCP basically killed the special agreements for the two cities where more than half the province calls home back in 2019.
But money for the post-sec pillars in several municipal economies is actually down
Calgary, Lethbridge, Edmonton and potentially other municipalities are today contemplating what losing academic staff and forcing students to pay more tuition will do to their economic competitiveness, thanks to a decrease in money to Advanced Education. Alberta’s post-secondaries will lose 750 full-time workers in 2021-’22. What does it all mean? Hint: Not good things.
Thanks to the pandemic, the big cuts were deferred this go round. They’re likely still to come
“We will see further cuts, more significant cuts, in future years, likely next year,” Knack said. “They wouldn’t do it in an election year, I’m guessing.”
Municipalities will be building supportive housing, not the province
We’re going to let Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson explain this one:
My reaction to the #ABBudget2021. For a budget focused on health, recovery and finding savings, I am confounded and disappointed the Province is not prepared to work with #YEG on supportive housing and has cut critical infrastructure funding to our city. #ableg #abbudget* Graphic: Tim Querengesser
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