Budgeting by groping along, civic decision-making in an era of fiscal restraint, a prairie response

Abstract

After decades of prosperity and growth, local government officials are faced with having to do more with less. They have entered an era of fiscal restraint, where their expenditure demands are exceeding the revenues they perceive can be raised from the voting public. In response to this relatively new challenge, they are resorting to "budgeting by groping along." They are developing incremental approaches to balance burgeoning expenditure demands with perceived revenue limitations rather than devising long term strategies. Although consorts of the provincial government, they are discovering that their attempts to find equilibrium between the revenue and expenditure sides of their revenue equations are being thwarted by provincial governments. The four major urban centres on the Canadian Prairies, Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton and Calgary are no exception. They are groping their way to fiscal equilibrium.