March 18, 2008 

By JEREMY LOOME, LEGISLATURE BUREAU

Back to Main In the News Page

Despite an affordable housing shortage, it took nearly a year for $285 million in related provincial funding to flow to Alberta's major cities, say its administrators.

They say it illustrates how governments work on slow, incremental improvements, even though the public wants quick action.

GOV'T NEEDS TO PLAN

The administrators also say it demonstrates why governments should plan in long cycles, not the typical short-term views common to the political arena.

The $285 million was announced April 24, 2007, in response to a government task force report on housing.

It took another 10 months for the province and cities to agree on how the money could be administered. That time hasn't been wasted: officials across Alberta were busy planning, says Susan McGee with Edmonton Housing Trust Fund.

"Once announcements were made that funding was available, there were a lot of inquiries on how to access it and we didn't have any answers for a long time," she said.

"Having said that, one of the roles we play is in due diligence with respect to direct funding for organizations who apply. So similarly the rules have to be very clear, and one of the risks in not taking the time to do that is we end up funding the wrong project.

"So I think there certainly has to be a balance between good program design and doing things as quickly as possible. And when things take time, what happens over the course of the year in the province right now is that costs go up 30%, 40%. So that's the big cost of delays."

McGee said more advanced planning from the province a few years ago might have allowed them to keep up with the problem.

"When we made our presentation to the task force that was in there as well," said McGee. "It's not just getting things going quicker, it's also making longer term commitments."

In fact, the current funding deal must be renewed annually, which slows the process further, said John Kolkmann, with the Edmonton Social Planning Council.

That would be less of an issue for agencies had the province agreed with the task force recommendation to index the funding to inflation.

Instead, it rejected both that notion and the idea of a specialized housing bureaucracy, which it has since embraced in a new ministry.

"I'm reluctant to let the province off the hook," said John Kolkmann, with the Edmonton Social Planning Council. "We could have had more units under construction today but it's been very difficult to get from the point of the announcements being made to necessary dollars flowing."

MCGEE OPTIMISTIC

McGee is optimistic, nonetheless, that Alberta is making progress.

"As long as it took and certainly as frustrating as it is when we're trying to approve projects there's been more done around affordable housing ... in the last year than in quite some time."

Edmonton Coun. Karen Leibovici says the softening of the market has also reduced some of the urgency around affordable housing.

"Vacancy rates are slightly higher than in the past. And that's positive; that will bring the rents down."

 Back to Main In the News Page