Services unaffected in High River by drop in provincial funding

Just like every other municipality in Alberta, High River has taken a hit from the provincial government.

The UCP government has done away with the Municipal Sustainability Initiative or MSI funding in favour of the Local Government Fiscal Framework.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says the lost cash will end up coming from local ratepayers.

"The burden of the less money we receive from the province, if we want to continue with the level of service and getting projects finished and keeping up to speed on our infrastructure, that money has to come from somewhere and if we're not getting the local improvement stuff, formerly MSI, if we're not getting as much out of that then the tax burden gets put on the residents and businesses of our community," he says.

Snodgrass says they saw a lot of downloading of costs onto municipalities during the first term of the UCP government and it makes it tougher when towns and cities aren't getting the money from that greater pool of Alberta taxpayers.

He says the decrease wasn't enough to affect council's budget decisions.

"We didn't see enough of a reduction that it affected our budget at all...it wasn't something that sacrificed any project or service in our community, but we're also very cognizant of the way we spend our money in High River."

The final budget is expected to come to council at its January 22nd meeting.