Mayor Don Iveson opens up about wish list for Edmonton ahead of federal budget

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson is headed to Ottawa to meet with other Canadian mayors and has a few ideas for how the Trudeau government could spend some federal money on cities in its upcoming budget.

Transit funding for cities remains a priority even if the federal government has vowed to support it, Iveson said one day before he heads to the nation’s capital to meet with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Big Mayor’s Caucus, which he chairs.

“We know the money is coming,” he said. “They’ve set aside $28 billion – which is fantastic – we now need to know the conditions and we also need to know what sort of arrangements they’re making with the provinces to ensure there is top-up so municipalities have an equitable share at the end of it, which we have suggested should be something like 10 per cent. Provinces and feds come up with 90 (per cent) at the upfront, we continue to deal with 100 per cent of the ongoing maintenance and operation costs.”

READ MORE: Liberals promise $20 billion to public transit

Iveson is also keenly awaiting what will come out of the forthcoming provincial budget. He said he hopes Alberta’s new carbon levy can help pay for public transit improvements.

“We also have really positive indications from the province that one of the major upsides of the carbon levy will be that it will provide a source of funds to build green infrastructure and some of the greenest infrastructure there is is transit.”

READ MORE: Alberta carbon tax kicks in: ‘It’s already here, we can’t do anything about it’

Iveson also said he would continue to push for funding and ideas to combat homelessness as well as a timeline for when cities can expect predictable funding to arrive for affordable housing.

READ MORE: Mayor Don Iveson ‘encouraged’ by federal-provincial cooperation on affordable housing

“It would give tremendous peace of mind and allow us to accelerate some planning,” he said. “First and foremost, to fix and upgrade Canada’s ageing supply of social housing units that are deteriorating. The next thing we need to do is expand the stock of social housing units.

“We can create a lot of construction jobs here.”