Communities receive extra money from federal Gas Tax Fund
Swift Current and other communities in southwest Saskatchewan are benefitting from the federal government’s decision to double the transfer of money to municipalities from the Gas Tax Fund in the 2019 budget.
Infrastructure Canada announced on Aug. 26 that Saskatchewan has received the first of two $31.2 million installments from the federal Gas Tax Fund for the 2019-20 fiscal year as well as the one-time top-up of $61.9 million that has been included in the 2019 budget.
The federal government decided to double the 2019 allocations from the Gas Tax Fund as a means to assist local authorities to address their infrastructure deficits.
The City of Swift Current’s regular installment from the Gas Tax Fund is $979,636 and it receives a top-up amount of $985,991.
This kind of financial windfall with a doubling of funds allocated to the City does not happen too frequently.
“Most of the years I’ve been at the City we haven’t had that luxury,” City Chief Administrative Officer Tim Marcus said.
The City will still decide how to use the funds, because the announcement of the top-up amount happened after the City’s budget for 2019 has already been finalized.
“Council hasn’t decided exactly what we’re going to do with the funds, but they’ll either be earmarked for some capital improvements or fund capital or operations,” he said. “It’s really to be determined yet.”
Capital projects for 2019 were approved last December as part of the municipal budget for this year. The additional funds will therefore probable be earmarked for capital spending in the 2020 budget.
“We have an annual agreement that is done in five-year increments for the gas tax funding,” he said.
“So we get that amount as a regular basis as part of an agreement that all municipalities have with the federal government, and then they came out with just one-time top up … It wasn’t an agreement or anything. It was just a letter we got saying that they were going to do that.”
Local authorities can decide on which projects to spend the money without any restrictions from the federal government, but the general intention is that it will be spend on infrastructure related projects.
The federal government has identified 18 project categories for spending of Gas Tax Fund allocations, which include public transit, water and wastewater infrastructure, solid waste management, roads and bridges, culture, tourism, sport, and recreation.
The Gas Tax Fund allocations for some of the other communities in southwest Saskatchewan are as follows (top-up amount in brackets):
Abbey – $7,611 ($7,314), Burstall – $16,402 ($19,144), Cabri – $23,010 ($25,376), Cadillac – $5,428 ($4,961), Climax – $11,505 ($11,575), Consul – $4,307 ($5,342), Eastend – $29,677 ($33,517), Fox Valley – $14,691 ($16,536), Fox Valley No. 171 – $19,470 ($21,942), Frontier – $21,948 ($22,324), Frontier No. 19 – $19,234 ($23,596), Gull Lake – $61,714 ($62,900), Gull Lake No. 139 – $11,859 ($12,784), Hazenmore – $4,130 ($3,180), Hazlet – $6,254 ($6,042), Herbert – $50,504 ($48,272), Hodgeville – $10,148 ($10,939), Leader – $50,917 ($52,216), Mankota – $12,095 ($13,420), Mankota No. 45 – $17,228 ($20,479), Maple Creek – $122,956 ($138,394), Maple Creek No. 111 – $63,012 ($73,394), Miry Creek No. 229 – $21,830 ($24,422), Morse – $14,278 ($15,264), Morse No. 165 – $25,193 ($25,504), Neville – $5,133 ($5,279), Pennant – $7,670 ($7,632), Ponteix – $33,217 ($38,478), Prelate – $9,086 ($7,886), Rush Lake – $3,127 ($4,134), Saskatchewan Landing No. 167 – $24,485 ($29,383), Sceptre – $5,546 ($6,169), Shaunavon – $101,126 ($111,682), Stewart Valley – $5,369 ($4,834), Success – $2,655 ($2,544), Swift Current No. 137 – $113,988 ($129,235), Tompkins – $8,968 ($10,812), Val Marie – $7,434 ($8,268), Val Marie No. 17 – $24,367 ($26,712), Vanguard – $7,906 ($9,667), Waldeck – $16,343 ($18,889), Webb – $2,950 ($3,689), Webb No. 138 – $31,919 ($33,899).