Yorkton Mayor Bob Maloney said he was "surprised" by the budget in as much as the Saskatchewan government admitted revenue shortfalls, but "maintained its commitment to municipalities."
With a modified formula relating to new monies transferring to municipalities from the one point of sales tax revenue-where 50 per cent is targeted at municipalities facing population growth pressures -Yorkton will receive an additional $361,000 in 2013, said Maloney.
"That's like two per cent of our tax roll," he said, adding "I think cities across the province are qualified for that."
Maloney said the change in formula is also a good one.
"There was a bit of a move toward per capita funding," he said, adding that is something cities have been calling for.
The announcement in the budget that there will be $1 million provided to Parkland College for final design work on a new Trades & Technology Centre is a huge one for the city, said Maloney.
"It's going to be a multi-million dollar project," he said, adding once built it will be a major benefit to the city.
Maloney said the new college facility will be good for area students facing lower costs to post secondary education, will help local business with trained staff, and grow the city's population.
Overall Maloney said, beyond local benefits, he liked that the province was able to balance the budget. He said as a municipal leader he could ask for more in areas such infrastructure renewal, but added he could not ask a higher level of government to go into deficit to do it.
"I think it's a prudent budget," he said.
Shelwin House, Yorkton's shelter for women and children fleeing from abusive relationships, received positive news in the provincial budget released last week.
The shelter will receive an $18,000 bump to its operating budget, an increase of 4.9 per cent compared to the 3.1 per cent increase in overall spending by the Saskatchewan government for fiscal 2013-14.
Lavern Dumka, director of Shelwin House, was very pleased with the announcement. "When you're operating at full capacity, that's going to be an immense help," she said.
Shelwin House is a 15-bed facility that provides meals, emergency supplies, clothing, support counselling, advocacy and referrals to agencies such as legal aid, social services and police. It is open 24 hours a day to accommodate arrivals at any time.
While the local organization welcomed its own budget increase, Deb Wilkinson, chair of the Shelwin House board of directors, said that was not the best news in the budget.
"We're very thrilled about the new transition house they're putting in in Melfort," she said. The Melfort crisis centre will have 16 beds perhaps alleviating some of the overcrowding at Prince Albert, the only other shelter in northeast Saskatchewan. That centre and one in Regina also received a significant increase in funding to support their expansion.
This is good news for the social services community, but was not met without some criticism.
""The answer to preventing violence isn't to have more shelters," said Kirk Englot, director of operations for Family Services Regina according to Global Regina. "Having a place to go in a time of need is critical, but that's only a first step."
Following the budget announcement, June Draude, minister of social services acknowledged that issue.
"We know that we also must understand the roots of the violence, and what we can do to actually prevent it as we go forward," she said. "But this is a first step in realizing that we'll deal with the opportunity to have women have a safe place to go."
Saskatchewan's rate of violence against women is double national statistics and the worst among all the provinces.
Health regions are being asked to tighten their belts as a result of the budget to the tune of some $54 million across the province.
"For sure we'll have to crunch our own numbers to see where we land with all this," said Suann Laurent, president and CEO of the Sunrise Health Region a day after the budget dropped.
Laurent said the local region will continue to focus on areas such as improving patient experience, and improving areas of primary health care, but added they understand the province is looking to the regions for "financial stewardship" as well.
In terms of financial stewardship Laurent said SHR will have a balanced budget for the past year, the third such budget in a row, adding they will do that again in 2013 as well.
That said, Laurent noted "it's going to be tight," when looking at the expected cut. "It is going to have an impact. We're going to have to find some efficiencies
"The regions have to come up with a lot of money We'll need a very sharp pencil."
Laurent termed the work ahead as a "hard budget" adding "we've made really hard decisions in the past."
The SHR will take its 2013 budget to its Board of Directors in May, and it will be presented to the province in June.
The tabling of the 2013-2014 provincial budget in the Legislature last week revealed good news for the Town of Langenburg and Good Spirit School Division.
Minister of Finance Ken Krawetz announced March 20 $1.9 million funding for two new school projects, one for Langenburg and one for Gravelbourg.
Division officials were optimistic last summer when facilities people from the Ministry of Education visited the town. In the Fall, Good Spirit received confirmation Langenburg was number two on the government's priority list. Nevertheless, Dwayne Reeve, GSSD director of education, said they didn't know for certain until budget day whether the money would be committed.
"This is excellent news for our division," he said. "This basically provides us the ability to enter the next phase of planning for a new school in Langenburg through development of a design for the facility."
The ministry of finance has not yet revealed how the $1.9 million will be distributed.
"I expect it will be comparable values to each, but we won't know until we receive the letter," Reeve said.
Overall the government allotted $120 million for major school construction and renovation in 2013-2014.
It also set aside $6 million to fund the new SaskBuilds agency that will explore the concept of designing batches of new schools in bulk by using public-private partnerships (P3).
In the P3 model, governments enter into contracts with private developers to design, build and, in some cases, finance and maintain traditionally publicly funded and managed facilities.
Education Minister Russ Marchuk said Alberta has used the P3 model to manage rapid growth by building up to 10 schools at a time based on common designs and blueprints.
This is not the first time the Saskatchewan Party has brought up the idea. It backed away the concept in 2008 due to strong public opposition including an advertising campaign by CUPE.
There are signs, however, that some educators are warming up to the idea, particularly in Saskatoon where the need for new schools is so great because of the explosive growth of suburban areas and the crumbling inner city educational infrastructure.
Shortly after the budget was released the Saskatoon Star Phoenix reported John McGettigan, Saskatoon Teachers Association president said he is all for P3 funding as long as it doesn't create financial problems for future generations.
Many critics of the SaskBuilds initiative have said the $6 million would be better spent in classrooms.
The budget also included an increase of $17 million to handle enrolment increases.
Janet Foord, Saskatchewan School Boards Association president, was immediately all over the announcement saying it was "status quo" budget.
"What this means, though, is that the government at best is maintaining funding not adding more resources to achieve all students' achievement needs," she said.
Referring to the premier's graduation and student achievement goals, she said merely keeping up with enrolment just isn't good enough.
"The targets for which boards are accountable have been mandated by the government; this budget does not provide the resources required to achieve those targets," she said.
$131.8 million increase, or 4.5 per cent for Regional Health Authorities base operating funding for health care, staff, drugs, medical supplies and other operating costs;
$70.5 million for the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative to reduce surgical wait times, an increase of $10.0million;
$29.0 million to address health care demographic volume pressures from population growth;
$4.3 million to establish Collaborative Emergency Centres and improvements to primary health care;
$2.0 million for an innovative home care services pilot for seniors in Regina;
$9.2 million for the third year of the federal/provincial Affordable Housing Agreement, to be used for new affordable housing, home renovations, home adaptations, and rental and housing supplements;
$14.3 million (2.3 per cent) increase in post-secondary base operating grants;
$10.0 million through Saskatchewan Housing Corporation to begin construction of a new student residence at the University of Regina;
$17.0 million increase to support forecasted school enrolment increases;
$20.2 million supporting 15 new Pre-K programs, for a total of 301 programs;
$119.6 million, an increase of $7.2 million (6.4 per cent) for school capital projects;
$1.5 million within Work Readiness to accelerate essential skills training and increase employment opportunities for First Nations and Métis people;
Overall, $184.8 million, or $10.8 million more in targeted funding from government ministries for initiatives that will benefit First Nations and Métis people, including $3.0 million directed specifically to address future recommendations of the Joint Task Force on Improving Education and Employment outcomes;
$5.0 million is provided to the new Creative Saskatchewan Product Development Investment Program to support growth and development in the creative industries sector;
$576 million in highways and transportation funding as part of the government's four-year, $2.2 billion commitment. This year $63.6 million is targeted to Economic Corridor projects such as the Regina West Bypass, the Estevan Bypass, passing lanes on Highway 10 and completion of the Highway 11 twinning initiative;
$264.4 million, a $27.0 million (11.4 per cent) increase for municipal revenue sharing, part of $362 million in overall direct provincial support to municipalities, an increase of $19.6 million (5.7 per cent) from last year;
A $2.0 million (8.5 per cent) increase to the municipal roads to the Economy program, bringing the total funding to $25.5 million; and
$198.3 million for Crop Insurance, a record budget.
.JPG;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
