The province has strengthened legislation that dedicates on-road fuel tax revenue to highway construction and operation.
Until now, highways spending under the Fuel Tax Accountability Act has been defined as all moneys appropriated to the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure, except expenditures on airports, executive management and money received from the federal government for highways infrastructure.
There has been no legislative authority to deduct spending earmarked for other items, such as short line railways, for example. New regulations to the legislation will allow for these kinds of deductions.
"For the past several years, the amount spent on highways has far exceeded revenue from on-road fuel taxes, but these new regulations make fuel tax accountability more transparent and produce a clearer picture of what is actually spent on highways," Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Ken Krawetz said.
The regulatory changes will ensure almost $800,000 spent on short line railways is excluded from the calculation of provincial transportation expenditures for the purposes of the 2009-10 fuel tax accountability report, which will be published later this fall in Volume 2 of the 2009-10 Public Accounts.
