The contention that poor municipal planning is the key factor undermining infrastructure carries no weight with the leader of an association representing Alberta’s rural governments.
“Let’s put the brakes on that,” said Kara Westerlund, president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta and, since 2010, a county councillor.
“We haven’t been doing the planning? We’ve done our best with the money we have.”
Root causes of an infrastructure deficit, the RMA estimates, could hit $33.5 billion this year, and are “a little more complex” than the poor-planning narrative suggests, Westerlund said.
Funding changes contribute to growing deficit
Funding reductions and formula changes from the provincial and federal governments have combined to push the deficit upward, she added.
Not helping matters are other costs imposed on local governments, along with public pressure to keep a lid on property taxes.
Campaign highlights rural infrastructure realities
The RMA launched a five-week campaign in January to raise awareness of the issue.
Week four in Closing the Gap: The Rural Infrastructure Funding Deficit looks at what the RMA calls the need to align investment with rural realities such as heavy industrial traffic, large and remote service areas, and widely dispersed development.
The campaign has also explained the deficit itself and its impact on local tax rolls, the importance of rural Alberta to the province’s economy, and the role of infrastructure in maintaining rural resilience.
Province recognizes funding gap
Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams said he welcomes the campaign, but there are limits to what the province will do.
“I think they’re right to initiate it. We need to agree that there is a deficit when it comes to infrastructure. We also need to try and find new and thoughtful ways of trying to address it,” he said.
But Williams stressed that maintaining municipal infrastructure is “fundamentally a municipal responsibility.”
Local governments “should be planning to have their aging infrastructure replaced. They should be setting dollars and cents aside,” he said.
“They should be calibrating and setting their tax rates so that they deliver on those core services. Where and when the province can support them, we are happy to.”
Aging infrastructure increases costs
Data compiled from various programs pegs provincial funding for rural governments at about $660 million over the past three years. About $590 million of that is capital funding and $70 million is operational.
The deficit calculated by the RMA represents the cost to restore roads, bridges, and waterworks to a target level, as managed, operated, and maintained by rural municipalities.
The number is on track to exceed $40 billion by 2028. By then, the value of infrastructure assets will have dropped from $34.75 billion in 2023 to under $11.5 billion.
The assets’ life will be 90 per cent consumed by 2028, the RMA estimates.
The group notes a snowballing effect on risks to public services and health and safety, and on demands on future budgets.
Rural municipalities manage most roads and bridges
RMA represents 69 municipal districts, counties and other generally unurbanized municipalities, which together cover about 85 per cent of the province’s landmass.
About 135,000 kilometres of mostly gravel roads are under the responsibility of rural jurisdictions, representing about 70 per cent of the provincial total. RMA municipalities own 75 per cent of the province’s bridges and culverts, and they operate and maintain 30 per cent of the province’s water and wastewater systems.
About 28 per cent of Alberta’s gross domestic product comes from RMA municipalities, the association contends, yet they’re home to 15 per cent or less of the provincial population.
Funding framework questioned
Most provincial funding to municipalities comes through the Local Government Fiscal Framework, which came into effect in 2024. The RMA claims the LGFF has slashed funding by 40 per cent when inflation is factored in.
The framework replaced the Municipal Sustainability Initiative, an envelope worth an average of $234 million a year to RMA members from 2013 to 2023, the association calculated.
Under the LGFF, member municipalities got $149 million in 2024 and $170.5 million in 2025.
Members spend half or more of their budgets on transportation infrastructure alone, the RMA contends, compared with 10 to 15 per cent for their urban counterparts.
“We’re saying that the garden hose trickle we have been getting back isn’t working, and we need to sit down at the table and plan out what that’s going to look like in the future,” said Westerlund.
Minister says limits remain
Williams, the UCP member for Peace River, said that “my hope is to continue to be able to support” rural Alberta municipalities.
“But the big question here is the very big capital ask that we’re going to have to address together when it comes to the infrastructure deficit,” the minister said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2026.