Alberta Municipalities weren't overly impressed with Premier Danielle Smith's televised address Wednesday night.
In it she discussed the need to pull back and trim spending.
The president of Alberta Municipalities, Tyler Gandam says that's leaving them caught in a vice.
"We've got a $30-billion infrastructure deficit across the province, we've got a number of municipalities that are growing overwhelmingly, and those shortcomings are what's going to hold us back in terms of that growth that we're going to see in the province," he says.
Gandam says they'd like to see Edmonton focus on infrastructure spending along with justice and social help to deal with crime, homelessness and other emerging issues.
"Crime is continuing to rise, the social issues that we're having in our province and our small communities even need to be addressed," he says. "It's fantastic that we're going to get some of the treatment facilities and the shelters that go along with that, but we do need some focus on the preventative measures as well to make sure that 15 and 20 years from now we're not seeing the continued increase to the level of homelessness and vulnerable population in our smaller communities."
After seeing it in Calgary and Edmonton over the last several decades, he says, it's moving to smaller communities, and they need to be prepared.