Saskatchewan municipalities are looking forward to more financial assistance for infrastructure projects after the signing of a renewed Gas Tax Fund agreement between Ottawa and Regina.
The 10-year agreement will provide $56.3 million to municipalities this fiscal year and $292.7 million over the first five years.
Funding for the final five years will be based on 2016 census data.
Carmen Sterling, Division 1 director for the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and reeve of the RM of Weyburn, said municipalities are pleased that the agreement is now permanent and indexed.
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“Infrastructure is vital, and especially in rural municipalities where there’s a lot of resource development and agriculture and access to re-sources is always at a premium,” she told reporters in Regina.
“You have to budget and you have to find ways to prioritize things, so anytime there’s additional funds being provided for those local projects, we certainly appreciate it.”
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said the previous program wasn’t indexed or permanent, but municipalities convinced the government of the need for both.
The money is allocated on a per capita basis, which means Saskatchewan urban municipalities will take the lion’s share.
However, the eligible categories have been expanded to make the program more flexible.
For example, disaster mitigation, broadband connectivity and short-line rail are eligible investments.
Sterling said broadband connectivity probably isn’t something most people think about, but some areas of the province still have poor internet and cellular phone service. She said the safety of residents and industry working in rural areas would benefit from improvements.
She expects most RMs would use their money for roads and bridges.
She also said many rural people benefit from the money spent in urban centres.
For example, a rural water pipeline from the city of Weyburn serves the RM.
“It’s important for us that the city of Weyburn has the capacity,” she said.
Weyburn mayor Debra Button, who is also president of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, said new regulations regarding water and sewer facilities are pushing costs up.
The city of Weyburn has to build a new water reservoir.
“It has gone from $7 million (two years ago) to a $13 million project at this point in time, so it’s significant dollars and for a community the size of Weyburn, which is 11,000 people, it’s tough to come up with the dollars,” Button said.
The program is expected to provide $613 million over the 10 years, including the indexing of two percent.
Saskatchewan government relations minister Jim Reiter said the program is important because the province is growing and needs to meet infrastructure demand.
The previous program, which had been in place since 2005, provided $372 million over nine years.
Overall, 2,565 projects worth more than $1 billion were approved.
