A federal commitment to spend tens of billions of dollars over the next decade on infrastructure is great news for rural prairie communities, say two leading rural politicians.
In his March 21 budget, finance minister Jim Flaherty promised $53 billion over 10 years for provincial, territorial and municipal infrastructure projects.
Part of the package was a long-sought indexing to inflation of the federal gas tax rebate.
Association of Manitoba Municipalities president Doug Dobrowolski said the announcement was important for his member municipalities because it provides increased funding and stability over the 10 years of the plan.
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“It will benefit everyone and there is predictability,” he said.
“This is a good announcement.”
Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president David Marit some of the money will flow to RMs for roads, bridges and water systems.
“That is important for our rural economies and the farm community,” he said.
Marit argued that rural governments must also work with the private sector to try to create infrastructure investment partnerships.
“That would allow us to leverage more out of those government dollars.”
Dobrowolski told the Canadian Federation of Agriculture annual meeting in February that the estimated cost of maintaining, upgrading or replacing infrastructure was $123 billion in 2007 after 15 years of infrastructure underfunding. The infrastructure deficit has continued to grow since then, he added.
He also argued that smaller communities do not have the resources to hire professionals to evaluate infrastructure needs and costs.
Last week, he said there is no dedicated fund to attack the infrastructure deficit, but some of the recently announced money will be invested in the problem.
Rural politicians also complain that distributing infrastructure money on a per capita basis discriminates against rural municipalities will small populations.
He said the Building Canada fund has a small-community component aimed at making sure RMs get a share.
Dobrowolski said that the federal budget does not help RMs hire staff to evaluate asset value and needs, but the Manitoba government is working with the AMM to fund 18 pilot projects to work on that issue.
The federal budget made it clear that that is a good idea for municipalities looking for infrastructure funds.
“To maximize the value and ensure the sustainability of investments in our public infrastructure, the government encourages all jurisdictions to undertake life cycle cost assessments and develop robust capital asset management plans,” it said.
