Coun. Peter Demong mentioned the town wants a greater technique when figuring out methods to allocate surprising surplus revenues.
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A Calgary councillor is hoping to finish an nearly annual debate that happens in metropolis council chambers — what to do when the town receives an surprising surplus from one-time income sources.
Ward 14 councillor Peter Demong intends to introduce a three-part discover of movement at Tuesday’s government committee assembly, together with a pitch to provide you with a greater coverage for dealing with unbudgeted working variances.
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“We’ve had some uncommon variances as regards to one-time-only funding,” Demong informed reporters on Thursday, referring to revenues from the native entry payment (LAF) and Enmax dividend.
“I’d like us to try what we’ve performed with these, make certain we lay them out in a really correct method to resolve if we handled them correctly, effectively.”
Resulting from a distinctive method that ties its LAF to Alberta’s regulated fee choice value of electrical energy, the Metropolis of Calgary has obtained large income windfalls from the levy lately because of skyrocketing energy costs, which reached report highs of practically 32 cents per kilowatt hour final summer time.
Enmax’s monetary figures present the town collected $303 million from the LAF in 2023, regardless of solely budgeting to obtain $125 million.
In September, council accredited to assessment the town’s LAF method because of that anticipated surplus.
However in December, councillors voted to defer their resolution till the provincial authorities completes a assessment of the regulated fee choice this spring.
The town must have a greater plan in place to allocate surprising surplus revenues in a extra environment friendly method, Demong mentioned, relatively than the established order of council debating yearly methods to spend the cash.
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What that plan in the end contains stays to be decided. Demong mentioned concepts floated prior to now included rebates, stashing the excess money in a reserve, or utilizing it as one-time funding.
“Are there going to be one-off conditions that we now have to cope with on an annual foundation?” he mentioned. “Sure, completely, but when we will decrease the quantity of discrepancy on methods to cope with them, that might be the plan I’d wish to see shifting ahead.
“When you’ve got variances, it’s best to have plans to cope with them — that’s all I’m actually suggesting.”
Municipal-provincial communication wants to enhance, says Demong
The opposite a part of Demong’s discover of movement contains measures to enhance communication between the town and the provincial authorities.
He argues the Alberta authorities has not solely lowered the capital and working funding the town receives yearly, however has additionally downloaded provincial duties like housing, emergency response and psychological well being programming onto municipalities.
This has all come as Calgary experiences super inhabitants development and inflationary pressures, which Demong mentioned aren’t appropriately factored into the province’s Native Authorities Fiscal Framework — the mechanism that allocates funding to Alberta’s municipalities for infrastructure enhancements.
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“As a metropolis councillor, there are loads of pushes and pulls which can be taking place that I don’t assume the province is totally understanding of,” mentioned Demong, who’s one in every of Calgary’s two representatives on the ABmunis (Alberta Municipalities) board of administrators.
“If we’re on this collectively, how can we cope with the Calgary space bringing within the equal of a Drugs Hat inhabitants each single yr?”
His movement would direct metropolis employees to have interaction with Municipal Affairs to debate their response to the town’s current Municipal Funding Hole report, which highlighted an annual shortfall of $311 million in capital and working funding from the Alberta authorities.
“It’s a dialog I consider we have to begin having frequently, as a result of in some ways, I really feel we’re not listening to one another,” Demong mentioned.
“How can we mix our powers between the province and the municipalities to raised serve Albertans?”
As a discover of movement, Demong’s proposal will first must bear a technical assessment at Tuesday’s government committee assembly. If it receives endorsement from the committee, the movement would advance to a daily metropolis council assembly for a debate of its deserves.
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