Spending in Alberta municipalities has outpaced population and inflation growth by a large and unsustainable margin, however in our city of Lethbridge, it has done much better than most cities in keeping the spending in line according to a new study.
Province wide, from 2000-2007, population and inflation grew by 45%, but in the same period, municipal operating spending grew almost 73%, according to the second annual Alberta Municipal Spending Watch report released by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
The report found that the average municipal spending was almost 1.6 times higher than population and inflation growth in the sever year period.
For Lethbridge, spending was 1.25 times population and inflation growth. This makes Lethbridge one of 11 Alberta Cities that reduced that the report refers to as a fiscal sustainable gap between 2006 and 2007.
The city’s sustainable gap in 2006 was 1.51.
According to the study, we see that Lehbridge has 1,025 full time municipal workers in 2007, which works out to 13 city workers per 1,000 population.
It has been recommended in the report that there is the creation of an independent municipal auditory general to oversee spending by local governments; however the idea was dismissed as the province already as the authority to do so.
With Lethbridge spending much less than other cities in Alberta, this only shows that when signs of trouble came about, job positions were not filled in the event money became tight.
It helped lower the margin, however in the time of economic stimulus, more jobs are being created to help push the economy back into the point it used to be.
Heleen Jacobsen
Broker of Record with InfoMarket Group GMAC Real Estate
www.infomarketgroup.com
