Roughly $2.3 million in federal and provincial grants for stormwater management in the Town of Westlock, which was promised earlier this year, has been on hold since the April election, pending provincial review.
A little over $1 million dollars was awarded to the town of Westlock March 12 through Alberta Environment and Parks Community Resilience Program during the NDP tenure, but an inquiry from interim CAO Simone Wiley in late April revealed that the program was not allowed to release any money as they were all placed under review by the current government.
The other $1.3 million from federal funding is contingent upon the town receiving the provincial grant.
The town had applied for a grant from the province to build a naturalized stormwater pond north of its boundaries, where it owns half a quarter of land, as well as additional drainage to that site.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $3.3 million, which the town can’t afford on its own.
“We had put the project out for tender understanding that we had this grant approval, but until such time that we know further details that’s going to have to be put on hold,” said mayor Ralph Leriger.
“I don’t think that this is a UCP-NDP issue at all."
Additionally, the province required that the town also submit an expression of interest for a federal grant.
“We applied for $1.3 (million dollars) for the federal portion, which is the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP),” said Wiley.
Receiving an ICIP grant is contingent upon the province recommending it.
On July 3, the town received an e-mail on the status of its expression of interest, which stated that “Alberta’s decisions related to the ICIP projects for submission to the federal government are tied to provincial budget processes, which includes reviewing the ICIP projects. We anticipate having more information to share regarding the status of your submission by the end of the calendar year.”
Wiley clarified that more information does not mean they will make a decision by the end of 2019.
Confidence in the project
Although the timeline for the project has been offset by the grant review, town officials are confident this is just a delay.
“I think the project is fantastic and it speaks for itself. … We’re 100 per cent confident that the project will move ahead at some point,” said Wiley, who sees the environmental component of the stormwater pond as essential to the project’s strengths.
Leriger agrees, saying that this proposal will draw a lot of attention because of the innovative design that incorporates environmental stability into stormwater management.
“I think we had a flood, we’ve done the work that we needed to do to show what priority work needs to be done so that these types of events don’t have a disastrous effect on us in the future and it’s important that the current government does its due diligence as well,” he continued.
“We’re confident in our proposal and we’re confident that our MLA is working on our behalf to find this funding,” said Leriger, who has been in contact with Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken.
But uncertainty remains about when the town will know whether or not it is still receiving the funds, and flooding continues to be an issue within the town’s boundaries.
“van Dijken hasn’t been able to provide us a timeline, and I’m not sure that that’s an expectation the town could put on him really, but we know he has our best interest at heart,” said Wiley.
After the rain on July 31, some areas around Highway 44 north of the Highway 18 intersection were flooded, revealing yet again the necessity of the proposed pond.
Pond details
Since the 2016 flood, which exposed the town’s drainage issues, there has been more focus on stormwater management and infrastructure.
“What we did after that event is we invested in a couple of studies, a storm water master plan and a sanitary sewer master plan, to understand where our issues were,” said Leriger.
At the time, effective drainage and a pond which would accommodate a one-in-100-year flood were identified as top priority in the stormwater master plan, which MPE Engineering presented to council January 2018.
The same firm designed the system for which the town sought provincial grants.
“Our project is a series of three pools within our 80 acres. It already has an existing wetland in it. We’re not touching (it), rather it will be on the outside but still within the pond areas,” Wiley explained. “So the water will come out of the ditch, go into the first pond which will have natural grasses … meant to be the filter. As the sediment in the stormwater flows through, it will get caught up in the natural grasses and vegetation in the pond.”
The more it rains, elevation between the three ponds allows for water to move from one to the next.
“Eventually it gets out of there and it’s been cleaned a lot more by going through that process by the time it gets released” into the Wabash Creek. The other good thing is that if you have a big event (like the 2016 flood), if it gets to that volume it spills over into the natural wetland,” she said.
Provincial delays
Issues with funding for municipalities in Alberta extend beyond the stormwater pond.
Leriger believes the current structure of grant programs is not functioning to the benefit of municipalities. Endeavors like stormwater ponds are costly, and few municipalities can afford them without additional funding.
“It doesn’t need to be a granting model, it needs to be a funding model. There needs to be certainty so you can plan,” said Leriger about the structure of how municipalities receive provincial dollars.
Specific to this transition period is a significant delay in passing a provincial budget.
The new government has endeavored to analyze all expenses in order to balance the budget by 2022-23. A blue ribbon panel on the matter will return with results and recommendations on provincial expenses Aug. 15.
But this has significant repercussions on municipalities like the town and Westlock County, who can’t accurately plan for the future.
“I think all municipalities, other than Edmonton and Calgary, are still waiting for an understanding of what will happen to (Municipal Sustainability Initiative) funding. … We’re being asked to do three-year operating budgets and five-year capital plans with no idea of what’s coming forward with MSI,” said Leriger.
Although not the source for the storm pond grant, MSI has been a key source of funding for municipalities in Alberta since the program started in 2007. According to Alberta Municipal Affairs, in 2018 the town of Westlock received close to $2 million dollars in MSI funding, the majority of which went towards capital projects.
But MSI will come to an end in 2021-22, “and the government continues to discuss the future of municipal infrastructure funding with our municipal partners,” reads the government’s website.
Wiley clarified that in previous years, municipalities were only required to have one-year budgets, but the new structure of three- and five- year operating and capital budgets respectively has increased municipalities’ reliance on MSI certainty.
While the cities of Edmonton and Calgary have the City Charters Fiscal Framework Act, passed in late 2018, nothing is settled for other municipalities.
“If you ask me ‘are other projects in jeopardy,’ well our whole capital plan is certainly contingent on funding. It’s not something that can or should be expected to be solely funded by municipal property tax,” said Leriger.
Similar uncertainty is visible at the county level as well. The proposed 2020 budget which county council and administration presented to ratepayers at a special meeting June 17 shows a projected figure of $500,000 for grant funding.
This is not an indication of how much the county will receive in grants, but rather an expression of that uncertainty for municipality budgets.
Through MSI alone, the county received upwards of $4 million in 2018.
“The new (provincial) government has not passed a budget for 2019 so any of our grant funding is still very unknown for 2019 and future years,” said Westlock County director of corporate services Diane Urkow at the June meeting.
