Rural Albertans may enjoy a smoother ride with millions of dollars slated for rural highways in this year’s transportation budget.
That’s a good first step, according to agriculture minister Ed Stelmach.
“There’s probably enough money there to deal with more of the priorities but we do know that with the restructuring that’s happening in grain handling that we’re going to have to look further to increasing some of those funds.”
For the next three years, high-traffic rural highways will get $29 million in additional funding. Rural municipalities and Metis settlements will get an extra $40 million for local roads.
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Under the Streets Improvement Program, towns and villages will get an extra $12 million.
The provincial government is still pushing for a share of the fuel tax paid to the federal government, said Stelmach.
In his department’s $368 million budget he points to increased funding for the province’s 68 agricultural service boards as a highlight. Funding for the boards, which are responsible for services like soil and water conservation and pest control, increased by $700,000 to $5.2 million. The boards hadn’t seen an increase since 1981, said Stelmach.
Federal government aid money will pay 60 percent of the provincial Farm Income Disaster Program, and free up about $44 million, said Stelmach. Consultations will be held on how to spend this money.
Other agriculture budget highlights include:
- The farm fuel distribution allowance increased $1.2 million to $33.5 million as the department anticipates greater demand for the program.
- The municipal wastewater program, announced last July, will see a $6 million increase for the 1999-2000 budget to $16 million.
- The research budget will be $9 million in 1999-2000, up from $8 million in 1998-1999. It will be $8.5 million in 2000-2001.
Rod Scarlett, executive director for Wild Rose Agricultural Producers, said the agricultural budget held no big surprises: “There wasn’t much in it. It was pretty low key.”
He wants to see a long-range plan to deal with falling commodity prices that may mean changes to Alberta’s Farm Income Disaster Program so more producers qualify for aid. The federal aid dollars should be better documented in the budget to ensure they don’t slip into general revenues, said Scarlett.
Studies on how low commodity prices affect rural people was another Scarlett suggestion. He expects this crop year to be “crunch time” for many producers who had to sell all their grain last year and don’t have an inventory to fall back on.
The infrastructure spending is a good start, but more funding is needed, said Scarlett, who thinks the federal government should be putting in a share.
“I would like to see the provincial government lobby far harder to get the federal fuel tax back. That could be a $600 million influx of infrastructure money.”
