Funding promises to Strathmore

By Leela Sharon Aheer Chestermere-Strathmore MLA

Hello Chestermere-Strathmore. I wanted to share with you some of the funding being promised to our constituency leading up to the election. I want to thank all those involved and our municipal partners for their hard work attaining these hard-earned taxpayer dollars. The Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) program ends this year and will be replaced by the Local Government Fiscal Framework in 2024. Since its inception in 2007, the MSI has allocated more than $15.2 billion dollars to communities to build and rehabilitate roads, bridges, water and wastewater systems, recreation centres, and transit. The new system and formula for allocating funding will be announced later this year regarding how the budgeted $722 million in capital funding will be distributed. This year there is a total of $485 million in capital funding, considering the increases in operating costs due to high inflation that municipalities face. Thank you for the budget submissions, and congratulations to all who have received much need funding. Here is what our communities received this year. 

Funding for the Town of Strathmore totalling $2.907 million;

• $72,000 to Rehabilitate the Strathmore Aquatic Centre

• $90,000 to replace playground equipment

• $75,000 to upgrade the irrigation systems at several parks and recreational areas

• $220,000 to install a portion of the waterline

• $90,000 to rehabilitate the outdoor tennis and pickleball courts

• $250,000 to construct an equipment storage building

• $75,000 to prepare engineering plans for the stormwater infrastructure

• $75,000 to install a columbarium

• $90,000 to upgrade the Strathmore Sports Centre

• $75,000 to purchase a water tank vehicle

• $75,000 to install a building automation control system at the Family Centre

• $210,000 to pave the parking lot at Kinsmen Park

• $525,000 to rehabilitate several roads

• $750,000 to replace waterlines and wastewater lines along Willow Drive

• $150,000 to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant computer systems

• $85,000 to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant

There was also a Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF) made to Chestermere for $237,000 to upgrade 1.6 km of Rainbow Road and $12,592.72 to the Town of Strathmore for the 2022/23 Fire Services. 

Municipalities are responsible for determining the funding priorities and following the criteria. It takes a long time and hours of work to plan for long-term capital projects and operating projects that build capacity and improve efficiencies and effectiveness of municipal services, planning, and dollars towards assisting non-profits.  

Finally, as you know, the Minister of Municipal affairs shared a detailed report of the municipal inspection findings into the City of Chestermere. There were multiple concerns around “irregular, improper, and improvident” governance that, if not resolved, could see the Mayor and some councillors or city officials removed. Here is what the City of Chestermere must do to behave responsibly and reflect the community’s interests.  Some of the directives are as follows:

• Hire an auditing firm to submit outstanding financial statements for the previous two years.

• Review its procedural bylaws and provide an action plan.

• Submit to the province all code-of-conduct complaints and discontinue exercising power struggles on the council.

• The minister also wants a list of all municipal land sales since October 2021.

• The Mayor and Council will review the directives, and the legal council will also be engaged to help with the process.

As always, we love to hear from you. 

(Leela Sharon Aheer is the MLA Elect for Chestermere-Strathmore)