$60m in Budget Cuts: What This Means for Nonprofits
As per our recent policy news on $60m in budget cuts approved by Calgary City Council, we have provided further analysis on how this impacts nonprofits. The following is a brief breakdown of some of the areas that will experience reductions:
Affordable Housing
The City has announced that it will reduce the budget for Affordable Housing by a total of $382,000. The Housing Incentive Program (HIP) is reduced by $188,000 which results in a 13% reduction (52 homes).
Arts & Culture
The total cuts for Arts & Culture amount to $815,000, including reductions in: grants and funding for special events, New Year’s Eve celebrations, and festivals across the City.
Community Strategies
There will be a total budget cut of $699,000 in Community Strategies. The overall impact will be on the Welcoming Community Policy implementation, Indigenous Relations Office, and support for Calgary’s Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Public Transit
Public Transit will receive a reduction totalling $6,893,000 which will have an impact on hours of service by 80,000 fewer transit operation hours, and transit routes by September 2, 2019. The reduction of hours reduces the frequency of the C-Train line and buses across the city outside of peak hours.
Recreation Opportunities
A total of $1,531,000 will be cut from various areas of recreation in the city, including: closures of pools and other recreational centres, and reduced access to recreation opportunities such as aquatics, fitness programs, and sports, and leisure activities. Overall, this cut reduces community programming and operating and customer service hours at some locations.
Social Programs
The City will reduce the capacity for research, analysis and evaluation of community needs, and programs and services by a total of $300,000, including support for the Youth Employment Centre.
Specialized Transit
A total of $2,395,000 will be reduced from Specialized Transit. This, in turn, will reduce the number of positions within Specialized Transit and will have an impact to Calgary Transit Access’ ability to respond to significant unplanned service demand increases.
Environmental Management
The City’s Climate Resilience Strategy approved in 2018 is one of the programs that will be affected by $124,000 in reductions with the Climate Adaptation Action Plan facing service reductions.
The City plans to achieve savings for the current year, so we can expect the service reductions to happen relatively quickly. The City has also stated that there will be further budget reductions in 2020. Stay tuned for further updates when more information is released by City Council.
Click here to view the full list of approved reductions.