Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer responds to the 2021 Budget

Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer responded to the Provincial Budget late last week. She noted that City was well prepared for what they saw in the 2021 Budget with respect to capital funding, operating funding, and capital grants.  

“There have been strong signals from the provincial government that our capital grant funding would be stable over the next two years and that we would need to manage our expectations and that we would see an overall reduction. In the coming years of the capital plan, even though there was an overall net reduction that the provincial government would be legislating, there was stable, consistent funding,” said Veer.  

She said the City has already made the necessary changes to manage different financial expectations. Capital funding is expected to decrease starting in 2024 and Veer expects the city will have to make adjustments accordingly as time goes on.

“We have already begun to manage those financial expectations in our long-term capital plan, we expect looking at the overall 25% reduction in MSI, which is the predominant capital grab program that there will be a $25 million cut to our capital plan over the life of the capital plan but again, that's over a 10 year plan so we feel confident that we can manage that,” said Veer.  

Red Deer will also see an increase on the education requisition tax of about $1.24 million which residents may eventually see as an added expense onto their property tax.

“This provincial increase will be an increase on the education requisition. The city does not have control of that, but how we manage that, we won't know further until April. We just wanted to flag that for our community today that we are watching that closely and will be looking how we can potentially buffer that impact on the property tax bill in the coming months,” said Veer.

With respect to some of the provincially funded projects in Red Deer, the funding for the permanent 24/7 integrated shelter and the new Justice Centre funding remains intact but Veer is concerned for the funding involving the Red Deer Regional Hospital.

“To look specifically into these numbers, the number that's showing in the budget is at least $58 or $59 million, and we are seeking clarification. Initially, we thought that that was on top of the $100 million that was already allocated . We’re seeking clarification because it appears as though that is almost an initial phase of the $100 million and so it does seem to be short of the original commitment. We have already reached out to the province on that specifically, ensuring that they follow through on their word for that for the full amount of the phase one capital funding for the hospital,” explained Veer.

She is also concerned for the Red Deer College and is asking the Ministry Advanced Education to release their Systems Review Report for of a fulsome understanding of the current recommendations and financial cuts at hand.

“We are relying very heavily on Red Deer College and its transition to an expansion as an advanced

education institution. [It is] one of our strongest drivers for economic diversification to not only keep our local population, but attract new population as well,” said Veer.