Edmonton leaders praise funding for infrastructure and housing promised in federal budget

Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack says he’s waiting for more detail about how a federal financial boost for infrastructure will meet the growing city’s needs for firehalls, recreation centres, roadways and buses.

“You name it, there is municipal infrastructure that's needed in essentially every part of the city,” Knack told reporters gathered outside city hall on Wednesday, one day after the Liberal government tabled its proposed 2025 federal budget.

However, Knack said the lack of predictability in federal and provincial infrastructure funding flowing to municipalities complicates Edmonton's ability to cope with population growth.

“It's very hard to meet the needs of the people we serve and provide them with the quality of life that they expect,” he said.

The federal budget, which includes $141 billion in new spending, emphasizes investment in public sector projects while aiming to trim the federal public service. It includes promises to spend $51 billion on infrastructure projects in the next decade, and $13 billion over five years for the Build Canada Homes agency to increase affordable housing units.

The only mentions of “Edmonton” in the main 408-page budget document are commitments of funding for Rapid Fire Theatre and the anti-poverty non-profit Bissell Centre in a list of infrastructure projects meant to improve communities.

Spokespeople for both organizations said Wednesday they were still awaiting more details from the federal government. Rapid Fire Theatre is raising funds to renovate part of a building to turn it into an improv theatre school.

The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce is “delighted” with the budget, vice-president of economy and engagement Heather Thomson said in a Wednesday interview.

“We're seeing historic levels of investment in the public sector, in the spaces of infrastructure,” she said. “Infrastructure in Canada for so many cities is a huge barrier to economic growth.”

Businesses need to move people and goods around efficiently, because time is money, she said.

Although it’s a deficit budget, funding for bridges and public transit is money well spent, Thomson added.

Employers also want more of the right housing mix for employees, and a train from downtown Edmonton to Edmonton International Airport and beyond is also on the chamber’s wish list, she said.

How federal funding reaches municipalities like Edmonton changed last year when the Alberta government adopted the Provincial Priorities Act.

Concerned that it didn’t have enough say in how former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government was spending money in the province, the Alberta government passed a law so ministers or cabinet must now approve almost any funding agreement between the federal government and any provincial entity, such as a city, a university, a school board or a housing corporation.