The province’s latest budget boosts funding for public services in Calgary but also ignores several calls for additional cash, critics say.
Minister of Finance Nate Horner released Budget 2025 in the legislature Thursday afternoon.
It includes a new eight per cent tax bracket for Albertans on their first $60,000 of income, saving individuals up to $750 a year.
Potential savings, especially in Calgary, will be partially offset by an increase in the education property tax.
In Calgary, the tax hike will cost homeowners an additional $239 a year, more than double the increase in Edmonton.
More benefits for Calgary
Along with a six per cent bump to education funding, Budget 2025 includes $225 million to plan and design 18 new schools in the Calgary area over the next three years.
Details of these projects have not been disclosed.
There’s also $30 million earmarked to help redevelop SAIT’s campus centre, $10 million for Mount Royal University to repurpose facilities and an extra $3.1 million for the University of Calgary’s veterinary medicine faculty.
For the health-care sector, the budget includes previously announced funding for several major projects in Calgary, like Foothills Medical Centre’s $66 million neonatal intensive-care unit upgrades.
The budget also confirms a $1.3-billion contribution to the city’s Green Line LRT project and $485 million in previously announced funding for already-underway Deerfoot Trail upgrades.
Other funding highlights for the city include money for the new Calgary Court of Appeal facility, the Contemporary Calgary art gallery and final dollars for the Springbank off-stream reservoir flood mitigation project.
