RMA urging province to address Alberta’s rural infrastructure funding shortfall

RMA launches campaign urging province to address Alberta’s rural infrastructure funding shortfall

The Rural Municipalities of Alberta has launched a five-week public awareness and advocacy campaign aimed at drawing attention to what it says is a growing infrastructure funding deficit facing rural communities across the province.

The campaign, titled Closing the Gap: The Rural Infrastructure Funding Deficit, calls for greater collaboration between the Government of Alberta and rural municipalities to support long-term investment in roads, bridges and other core infrastructure.

RMA says rural municipalities own and operate most of Alberta’s road, bridge and utility infrastructure, which supports residents and industries tied to the province’s resource economy. However, the association argues that chronic underfunding, rising construction costs and tightening municipal budgets have sped up the deterioration of these assets.

The campaign builds on RMA’s Rural Municipal Infrastructure Deficit Project, released in 2024, which assessed the condition of rural infrastructure and estimated the province’s rural infrastructure deficit at more than $17 billion in 2023. Without provincial intervention, RMA says that gap was projected to rise above $25 billion by 2025.

“It may surprise many Albertans that rural municipalities manage a larger infrastructure portfolio than anyone else in the province, including the Government of Alberta,” RMA President Kara Westerlund said in a statement. She said rural municipalities are facing growing challenges maintaining aging infrastructure while also investing in upgrades needed to support new industrial development.

Over the coming weeks, RMA says the campaign will focus on the economic impacts of deteriorating infrastructure, the cost pressures facing rural taxpayers and the need for predictable provincial funding.

As part of its recommendations heading into Budget 2026, RMA is calling for the collaborative development of funding approaches it describes as fair and predictable, including principles and allocation models that reflect higher rural infrastructure costs.

The association is also urging the province to provide short-term stabilization funding by increasing existing municipal programs, including the Local Government Fiscal Framework and the Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program, to address urgent road and bridge needs.

For the longer term, RMA says Alberta should develop a province-wide condition assessment framework and a risk-based prioritization system, along with support for municipal asset management and innovation funding.

RMA represents Alberta’s 69 counties and municipal districts.