The provincial budget will see money head to the Canmore Nordic Centre for much-needed upgrades and enhancing outdoor recreational opportunities on Crown lands.
The Nordic centre will receive $17.5 million over the next two years to help with upgrades such as replacing the biathlon building, the stadium and refreshing infrastructure to help snow-making capabilities and storage capacity.
The money comes after several years of advocating for the repairs when a feasibility study in 2018 emphasized the need to complete upgrades.
The Nordic centre features two national teams – Biathlon Canada and Nordiq Canada – and has several Olympians and Paralympians train at the facility that was built for the 1988 Winter Olympics. Alberta Alpine is also based out of the facility.
The budget also set aside $50.8 million in operating and capital funding to refurbish and enhance outdoor recreational opportunities on Crown lands.
A study late last year by the Tourism Industry Association of Alberta (TIAA) found there was $376 million in spending on outdoor equipment and accessories, with outdoor recreation contributing $2.8 billion to the gross domestic product of the province.
The study highlighted outdoor activities such as ski hills, trail development, resorts, spas and hot springs are sought after, but the infrastructure has to be renewed to support people.
Under the Public Lands Act, Crown land is protected and makes up about 60 per cent of the province or nearly 40 million hectares.
Other infrastructure upgrades in the region will be for continued work on Highway 1A in the Stoney Nakoda First Nation for $2 million and $15 million in each of 2023-24 and 2024-25. There will be $1 million for the Kananaskis Emergency Services Centre, $7 million for the wildfire facility upgrade program and $6 million for wildfire management readiness.
Funding for the Municipal Sustainability Initiative dropped to $485 million for 2022-23 and 2023-24. The fund is a vital source of money for municipal infrastructure projects and will be replaced in 2024-25 with the new Local Government Fiscal Framework.
The Tourism Levy Act will be amended again after short-term rentals that are listed on online marketplaces were added last April. The budget will eventually see new legislation amendments brought forward this year to require online marketplaces such as Airbnb to collect the taxes and in turn pay the tourism levy.
The goal of the amendments, according to the budget, is to allow traditional tourism places such as hotels and motels that are listed online to collect and pay their tourism levy.
For 2022-23, the levy is expected to bring in $72 million in revenue.
Alberta Environment and Parks will receive $604 million – an increase of $105 million from the previous budget – but parks were allocated $75 million. In 2020-21 the budget for parks was $76 million and rose to $81 million last year.
Fish and Wildlife, environmental science and monitoring programs, water and air programs also received cuts.
Among initiatives for Environment and Parks are $15.7 million for the caribou recovery planning, $9.8 million in land-use planning and stewardship and $72.9 million for operating and capital for environmental science and monitoring.
There is $15.4 million set aside for Crown land environmental enforcement and $48.5 million for flood mitigation.
“Alberta Environment and Parks maintains responsible spending in Budget 2022 and continues to provide critical environmental protection of our air, land, water and wildlife,” said Jason Nixon, the minister of environment and parks in a release.
Under the budget, $19 million will be spent in the next three years to work on the digital regulatory assurance system for a single digital system in approving and long-term environmental monitoring.
The technology innovation and emissions reduction (TIER) will get $698 over the next three years for projects and programs to help reduce emissions.
“The TIER program has been a tremendous success – moving Alberta forward with climate policies that are creating jobs and reducing emissions,” Nixon said. “Out well-maintained park facilities, amazing trails and expanded preservation efforts ensure our province is the best place to call home.”
Travis Toews, the minister of finance and president of the treasury board, highlighted the TIER program that funds advancements in technology to aid in reducing emissions. He added with oil production rising and energy pricing increasing, the province is expecting to collect additional money.
“We collect the funds from the industry itself. Those funds are then deployed by the Minister of Environment into a whole host and series of projects in research and development that work to find new technology's that can ultimately bring down emissions in the energy industry. Very often those technology’s can be applied more broadly.”
The budget stated $136.7 million from the TIER program will be allocated to environment and parks for 2022-23.
Addressing issues of affordability, particularly the rising cost of living, was made a priority for the provincial government.
Funding for childcare, broadband internet, natural gas prices and housing and food costs were all identified.
A significant aspect of the budget focuses on the province’s healthcare system, which has been hit hard during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the budget, Alberta’s health financing will grow by an additional $600 million in 2022-23 and $1.8 billion by 2024-25. An extra $750 million will also go to COVID-19 and the surgical backlog. The overall health budget will be set at $22 billion.
The anticipated revenue for the province this year is expected to be $62.6 billion and expenses are budgeted at $62.1 billion, leading to an estimated surplus of $511 million.
The budget is the first time since 2014-15 the books were balanced, which is largely due to the soaring cost of oil.
The provincial debt will be about $97.7 billion by March 31, but is expected to go down by $3 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
Toews said the government is using “credible, but cautious energy projections” for the next three years.
“There’s no doubt rising energy prices have certainly improved the balance sheet and the bottom line of Alberta’s income statement for this year,” Toews said.
