The Government of Alberta will deliver its 2025 budget on Thursday, Feb. 27, and affordable housing funds are among St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron's top hopes this year, a list that also includes funding for business districts.
Heron said the municipality's number one ask for the budget this year was, once again, funding for the Lakeview Business District. She said that this budget request is a one-off because there is no provincial grant program that supports the development of business parks.
This was also their request last year, and she says the project is important for growth in St. Albert.
"It's about economic growth, it's about jobs. It's about the city's financial sustainability. It's really a No. 1 priority," Heron said.
She also stated her desire to see more funds for grants for affordable housing in St. Albert. Specifically, she said the city has asked for money from the Affordable Housing Partnership Program for funding for 22 St. Thomas Street, the site of an upcoming commercial apartment complex.
Heron said affordable housing is needed urgently in St. Albert, and only about 1.8 per cent of St. Albert's housing stock is considered affordable, below the provincial average of 3.1 per cent.
"We're really low on developing," she said. "The city itself is up to about $6.85 million in financial support for this project. So, I think that indicates how important this is do us."
She said the $6.85 million comes from land donated to Homeland Housing in the downtown area worth $3 million, and that they have set aside $3.85 million in city funds for the project. She also said they've received funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), and the only partner they're waiting for is the provincial government.
"We need the money," she said. "We need this building to go up."
While there are funds available through grants, such as the Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF), Heron said the starting allocation of $724 million in 2024 was too low for all the municipalities in the province. In 2025, St. Albert has been allocated $9.25 million from the program, up from $7.9 million in 2024.
"It's just not enough," she said.
John Allen, board chair for St. Albert Public Schools, said he hopes there will be an increase in funding for maintenance of public schools.
"I think there has been a 1.5 per cent increase in the last four years in that funding," Allen said. "But post-COVID, the escalating cost pressures have been remarkable. It's a deficit for our school division and for a lot of school jurisdictions around the province."
Allen also expressed the need for more modular classrooms, as well as updates for current ones that are getting older.
"We're crunched for student spaces and we have many old modulars," Allen said. According to the school board's capital plan, St. Albert Public Schools currently serves over 9,500 students.
Of the current modular spaces in the division, the oldest module is 49 years old, at Ronald Harvey Elementary School.
"We'll probably have a party this year," Allen said. He said that modular classrooms were never supposed to get that high in age. "We have over 100 modulars and so we do need to keep replacing those, evergreening them, maintaining them."
Allen also hopes the province simply maintains its promise to fund new schools in accordance with its accelerator program.
The Government of Alberta previously committed $8.6 billion to build up to 90 new schools, modernize or replace up to 24 existing schools, and expand the modular classroom program and public charter school builds.
The province has said it will announce the first set of new school projects in Budget 2025. Allen said although St. Albert Public Schools is looking for some of the $8.6 billion, all he hopes for this budget is "that funding stays in place."
St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud said she will be keeping an eye on areas for the municipality like infrastructure funding, education, and disability supports, but wasn't hopeful.
"I'm sort of holding my breath," Renaud said. She said she's interested to see what funding for areas like health care looks like, given the province's recent changes to the makeup of Alberta Health Services (AHS).
On Jan. 30 2025, the provincial government announced Assisted Living Alberta would be the final agency taking over from AHS, joining Recovery Alberta, Primary Care Alberta, and Acute Care Alberta.
Renaud said that this change makes comparison of the budget between years past more difficult.
"Now they've got four bodies instead of one. So, it makes it very difficult year to year to compare," she said. "There's lots of confusion. And when you constantly have moving parts and confusion, it's really difficult to provide oversight, not just for the Opposition, but for the general public."
The Gazette reached out to Morinville-St. Albert MLA and Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally's office, but he was not available for comment.
The Gazette will have more to come on the 2025 Alberta budget once it's released on Feb. 27, 2025.
