Building Healthy and Vibrant Communities

(May 25, 2023) — Today, the United Conservative Party announced plans to create a Community Recreation Centre Infrastructure Fund to support Alberta families by growing stronger communities. This $80 million investment over four years would especially help get mid-sized recreation facilities into rapidly growing communities sooner.

Recreation centres and facilities are often the hearts of their communities, creating places for kids, seniors, adults, and newcomers to come together. A re-elected UCP government will create the Community Recreation Centre Infrastructure Fund to ensure communities across the province have the resources to continue enjoying these spaces.

“Everyday, Alberta families rely on community facilities for children’s programs, fitness classes, recreation, and meeting spaces,” said UCP candidate for Calgary-Foothills Jason Luan. “By creating the Community Recreation Centre Infrastructure Fund, we can ensure that more Alberta families will have access to these programs and activities in their own neighbourhoods, which will foster relationships by bringing people together.”

The Community Recreation Centre Infrastructure Fund will ensure growing communities have the facilities they need, particularly to have strong youth sports and activity opportunities.

Working alongside the existing Community Facility Enhancement Program, this new fund will direct $80 million over four years to mid-sized projects, such as arenas, pools, and indoor turf centres. This will ensure that public-use projects of all sizes are able to access funding, providing a community space to be enjoyed for years while also creating local jobs and economic activity.

“Alberta is growing as more and more people in Canada and around the world see the immense opportunity that exists here,” Luan finished. “For newcomers, a facility like the ones that will be supported by this fund are often their first connection to their new neighbours and communities. A UCP government will continue its work to build strong communities through investments like this one in addition to supports for public safety and economic growth.”

The Community Recreation Centre Infrastructure Fund will help build healthy, vibrant and active communities that keep people connected and engaged, making life better for all Albertans.

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For further information, contact:
media@unitedconservative.ca

Backgrounder:

The Community Recreation Centre Infrastructure Fund aims to foster healthy, vibrant and active communities across Alberta.
The fund will ensure growing communities have the facilities they need to stay healthy, and have strong youth sports opportunities.
The program will respond to local facility needs and works in partnership with eligible nonprofit organizations to assist communities with acquisition, construction, upgrades, or redevelopment of public-use community facilities.
The Community Recreation Centre Infrastructure Fund will work parallel to the Community Facility Enhancement Program (CFEP) but be targeted at mid-sized community facilities like arenas, pools, and indoor turf centres.
CFEP serves to provide financial assistance to acquire, build, purchase, repair, renovate, upgrade or expand sports, recreational, cultural or other related public-use community facilities, but is capped at $1 million.
The primary outcome of this fund will be to enhance the lifespan and support the creation of public-use community recreation facilities across the province. In addition, the fund is expected to help stimulate economic growth and job creation.

Questions and Answers:

Will there be a cap on the size of the grants offered in the program, similar to how the CFEP grants are capped at $1 million, or will the grant cover a certain percentage of the total cost for approved projects?

The specifics of the fund will still need to be confirmed, but it will be higher than $1 million to provide meaningful support for mid-sized facilities.
What we are doing here today is showing our commitment to supporting Alberta families and the facilities they use to feel part of their communities and to feel connected to their neighbours.

If large- to mid-size projects like pools and arenas are the target projects, is a budget of $80 million over four years enough?

We know that while Albertans are looking for support for their communities and families, they are also looking to us to be responsible with their tax dollars and ensure we’re not passing unnecessary debt onto their children and grandchildren, and we take that into account with every policy we are putting forward.
Unlike the NDP, the UCP takes fiscal responsibility seriously and doesn’t believe in needlessly saddling debt on future generations.
We believe that $80 million over four years will go a long way towards building and improving these of mid-sized facilities, in partnership with municipalities and other organizations. The CFEP and CIP funds will remain in place, supporting hundreds of other communities projects of different sizes.