EDMONTON—Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson was so alarmed by the details of the United Conservative government’s first budget Thursday that he cancelled a planned trip to the Netherlands at the last minute.

Speaking at the Edmonton airport, Iveson said he can’t leave the city after hearing about plans to slash capital grants to municipalities and delay funding for major transit projects in both of Alberta’s biggest cities.

“This is a pretty significant shock,” he said.

“I need to be part of the conversation in our city over the next several days about this broken promise, the implications of all of the cuts to our city.”

In Calgary, Mayor Naheed Nenshi offered to “start with the good news” about the provincial budget, and then stood in silence in front of reporters.

Edmonton and Calgary have been promised a combined total of $3 billion from the province for their Valley Line West and Green Line LRT projects, but Calgary will see only $75 million of what has been promised over the next four years. Edmonton won’t receive any of the provincial funds it is expecting over that time.

Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews said those funding pledges will still be fulfilled, but putting off provincial spending on the transit projects “better reflects” Alberta’s current fiscal situation. He said the MacKinnon report on provincial spending pointed to the need for municipalities to shoulder more of the cost burden for major projects.

“Alberta has one taxpayer,” budget documents read. “When hard-working Albertans see their incomes shrink and struggle to make ends meet, they have to face their fiscal realities — and so do governments.”

The Green Line, at a cost of nearly $5 billion, is the most expensive infrastructure project ever planned for Calgary. Nenshi said the change in provincial funding plans is a major problem.

“I don’t think it’s too much to say the project itself is in jeopardy,” he said, adding even though there’s federal funding in line for it, he’s worried the province’s move creates uncertainty that could change those plans too.

“I don’t know how you complete the Green Line on time. We certainly don’t have the debt capacity — that’s way too much money going to the banks, and we just don’t have the ability to borrow that much money at the city level.”

Delayed funding for Edmonton’s 14-kilometre Valley Line West LRT extension from downtown to Lewis Farms means the city will have to take out a short-term loan to cover costs.

“The interest for that, if that’s paid by Edmontonians, is a download,” Iveson said.

“These cash flow implications ... They may not be fatal to the project, but they will have a cost to Edmontonians in the form of extra interest.”

Iveson also said the removal of the Alberta Community Transit Fund — previously funded by the carbon tax — is a blow to the city, since it was funding projects like widening Terwillegar Drive into an expressway and adding a possible extra lane for buses.

The province also announced Thursday that it would replace the City Charters Fiscal Framework Act with a new arrangement that cuts funding for Edmonton and Calgary from $500 million to $455 million starting in 2022-23.

Maintaining the city charters was “an explicit, black-and-white commitment” in the UCP’s platform, Iveson said, making the change a broken promise.

Nenshi echoed those concerns.

“That’s a promise broken. They are not respecting that long-term fiscal framework, which Calgarians relied on when they voted for the UCP. And they said they would.

“Certainly, I think they’ve got some explaining to do.”

In a statement Thursday evening, the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association said it was “extremely disappointed” with the decision to make the change.

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NDP Municipal Affairs critic Joe Ceci accused the government of downloading costs onto municipalities, adding he’s also disappointed to see the agreements replaced after being negotiated under the previous NDP government.

“If I was in Edmonton and Calgary, on city council or a citizen, at this point in time, I would say a contract is not worth anything in this province.”

With files from Kashmala Fida and Andrew Jeffrey

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