Calgary vows to continue funding talks with Ottawa despite Alberta bill

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Calgary’s mayor says the city will continue to negotiate directly with Ottawa for financial support despite Alberta’s proposed law to stop municipalities from bypassing the province in pursuit of federal funding.

Jyoti Gondek, in an interview Thursday, said Alberta did not instruct Calgary to halt such talks after the provincial government rolled out legislation that would require municipalities, universities and other entities to obtain its permission before signing, changing or renewing funding deals with Ottawa.

Premier Danielle Smith said the legislation tabled Wednesday is necessary to stem the federal government’s ideological and constitutional intrusions in Alberta. The legislation does not detail potential consequences for municipalities, universities or other provincial entities that do business directly with Ottawa and Ms. Smith, when pressed, did not elaborate on repercussions.

However, the legislation has funding recipients such as cities and colleges worried that some of the billions of dollars Ottawa forwards them each year could be at risk.

Ms. Smith said she was irritated by the federal government’s recent plan to negotiate directly with municipalities for a share of a new multibillion-dollar fund to pay for infrastructure necessary to build more housing. Calgary is among the communities competing for a cheque and while Alberta indicated it will consult with municipalities and others affected by its new bill this summer, Ms. Gondek said the city cannot afford to pause its campaign for cash.

“There’s money on the table right now,” Ms. Gondek said. “We don’t have time to wait.”

Calgary provided Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver with details about 64 agreements it has with the federal government on Jan. 31, city spokeswoman Kaila Lagran said. The deals are worth a collective $435-million, she said.

Mr. McIver, a former Calgary councillor, said the city should have been “wise enough” to invite the province to the table when it was trying to cut a deal with the federal government on housing.

“They didn’t invite us, so this is a natural outcome of the choice that they made to not invite the province into the conversation, knowing that they operate exclusively under provincial jurisdiction,” Mr. McIver said on CBC Calgary’s Eyeopener show Thursday.

”Having said that, we’re going to do everything we can to not make it a problem for the city,” he said. “But they kind of asked for this.”

Jared Wesley, a political scientist from the University of Alberta, said requiring provincial sign-off for federal-municipal agreements is, in principle, a good measure. It could ensure uniformity, streamline negotiations and allow for comprehensive risk assessments, he said.

However, Mr. McIver’s comments have him questioning the government’s intention.

“This suggests that they’re not interested in getting more dollars necessarily, but that this may actually be punitive for institutions that disagree ideologically with the government,” Prof. Wesley said, adding that the minister’s “confrontational attitude” erodes trust with municipalities.

“Anybody who’s done any level of negotiation knows that trust is the first thing you need to build,” he said.

Critics argue Alberta will have to beef up its bureaucracy to properly review federal funding agreements. Funding recipients worry they could miss out on opportunities if the provincial government adds another layer of scrutiny.

Mr. McIver, on Wednesday, said the reviews would not be burdensome. It would only take a “couple of minutes, or 10 minutes to review five or eight different agreements,” he said, using housing as an example.

Prof. Wesley said that’s not realistic.

”That process is not a matter of skimming. These documents, in some cases, are upwards of 60 to 100 pages,” he said. “The type of oversight that the Premier and the Minister are describing would not take 10 minutes. It very well might take 10 months in some instances.”

While the governing United Conservative Party appears to be most concerned with municipalities striking its own deals with Ottawa, the Premier also took aim at postsecondary funding she believes is based on the federal government’s ideology. Pressed for examples, Ms. Smith pointed Ottawa’s “social research fund.”

Sam Blackett, a spokesman for Ms. Smith, on Thursday confirmed she was referring to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), a federal research-funding agency.

Alberta in 2022-2023 received $42.7-million from SSHRC, including a combined $37.6-million to the University of Alberta and University of Calgary, according to the agency’s data. Both universities said they are speaking with the provincial government to better understand the legislation.

SSHRC “promotes and supports post-secondary research and training in the humanities and social science.” Most grants are not tied to specific topics, but the council puts out calls for research in areas of national importance, such as housing, agriculture, gender-based violence and Indigenous reconciliation.

SSHRC president Ted Hewitt explained in a statement on Thursday that grant and scholarship applications are submitted through postsecondary institutions and awarded through a competitive process of merit review to ensure the “highest standards of excellence and impartiality in the selection process.”

Advanced Education Minister Rajan Sawhney told reporters Thursday that the province isn’t trying to impede academic freedom. “We want to make sure that this funding does align with provincial priorities,” Ms. Sawhney said. But she added, “I can’t think of a single grant stream that’s going to the post-secondaries that would be problematic.”

Bill Werry, the executive director of the Alberta Post-Secondary Network, said the 26 organizations in his group receive a collective $1-billion in research funding from the federal government “in a good year.” The network’s members, he said, are worried researchers may not be awarded as much money if Alberta slows down the application process.

The University of Calgary, in a statement, said it received $190-million from the federal government last year, or about 35 per cent of its total research revenue. Michael Brown, a spokesperson with the University of Alberta in Edmonton, said the institution received more than $223-million in federal research investments, also accounting for more than one-third of its total research revenue.

With a report from The Canadian Press