The City of Cold Lake’s pockets are feeling a little lighter after learning the province can’t afford their portion of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).
“The Government of Alberta doesn’t have the money… They wouldn’t be able to come up with their matching component from the province, so therefore, municipalities would have to find ways and means, if they don’t have a provincial grant program they’re tapping into, what other provincial funding they could use to come up with the province’s share of the ICIP,” CAO Kevin Nayoga explained.
During their latest meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 13, city council agreed to allocate their $199,800 from the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) to cover the province’s shortfall.
The city’s ICIP application, which was submitted in 2018, was for the $3-million phase three of the Kinosoo Beach project.
According to Cold Lake’s general manager of infrastructure services Azam Khan, the expansion “adds more character to the landscape.”
Phase three includes creating small hills “so people have more laying areas,” a floating dock, and some umbrella-type structures.
Under the ICIP formula, the municipality would be responsible for 26.67 per cent of the cost, which equates to roughly $800,000. The province picks up 33.33 per cent of the price tag, which is just shy of $1-million, and the federal government pays the remaining $1.2-million.
However, Cold Lake learned prior to the election the provincial government hadn’t secured the matching funds needed for municipalities to access the federal money, leaving the city weary of whether they would be seeing any ICIP dollars at all.
With that in mind, Nagoya said, the city has been playing “a bit of roulette,” when it comes to keeping their application alive as the province considers their options, even if that means reallocating their MSI dollars.
“It’s quite a bit of money, and when you’re talking about a $3-million budget, you don’t necessarily want to say no to anything,” he stressed.
“We understand based on informal conversations that there are about 600 applications and it appears from rumour that there will only be from six to eight approved projects… We’re hearing out in the world that everyone’s already been told no. No one’s told us no. They’re looking for confirmation that the city is still playing their cards and playing the game with them,” Nagoya continued.
Although the city hasn’t been granted their ICIP grant at this point, Nagoya explained administration is getting their paperwork in order in the case that they do.
“In order to change the way we’ve done the budget, I need to make sure council’s on-board so if the Government of Alberta and the federal government say yes, because our understanding when we submit this application to the province is they actually send it to the federal government for final approvals… That being said, we’re going to have to come up with a little bit more money next year.”
He added, “My advice to council is don’t say no. I think we would want them to say no that we’re not approved, because it’s a $3-million budget for Kinosoo Beach. This is going to… come close to funding the majority of the rest of the master plan.”
The idea of the city picking up the cost didn’t sit well with Coun. Chris Vining.
He said, “This one’s kind of frosting me a little bit because this was an agreement the province signed with the federal government for the ICIP, saying they would fund these projects that they approved and that they would provide one third of the finding.”
Not wanting to walk away from any grant funding they could receive, Vining agreed to reallocate the MSI monies.
“I get it, I don’t want to walk away from the money either… The province signed this agreement, not us. We have to submit this to Municipal Affairs so they can kick it to the federal government even though they’re not putting any of their money in. Unless of course you talk to Municipal Affairs and then of course they say that the MSI is their money.”
