It will help fund more programs and services.
When the Provincial Budget was released last month, the City of Humboldt was excited to see an increase in the Municipal Revenue Sharing program, in which the provincial government gives one per cent of the Provincial Sales Tax back to municipalities in Saskatchewan.
"Certainly the thing that stands out most and for most communities in Saskatchewan is certainly the revenue sharing program," said Mayor Malcolm Eaton. "We are seeing an 11 per cent increase overall in the revenue sharing program. In total, for the City of Humboldt, it amounts to about $130,000."
He explained some of the increase Humboldt is seeing is due to population growth.
"We are very pleased with the way the province has supported the municipalities through this program," said Eaton. "It is a program that doesn't exist anywhere in the country. It is certainly making a long-term commitment to municipalities."
The program provides the City with predictable funding in a sustained way and allows them to have a good idea of funding when planning.
"We're using this funding to support a lot of our programs and services in the city," said Eaton.
Some of those services are snow clearing, street sweeping and sanding in the city, the recreation department and programs and facilities, pool maintenance and parks development, the fire department equipment, bylaw enforcement and library, as well as other services and programs the city is trying to offer.
"For us, it is very much a part of our operating funds," said Eaton.
There are also other avenues of provincial funding the City is looking at getting.
"The other part of the provincial funding that supports infrastructure is a program we will be working on with the province and the federal government," said Eaton. "That is certainly something we hope to see some progress on."
They have also seen announcements in the Federal Budget that extend the gas tax program.
"That is an important program for us from the federal government," said Eaton. "For us it amounts to about $350,000 a year and we are devoting that entirely to roads and a little bit to utilities."
Eaton explained they are also looking forward to further announcements regarding infrastructure over the next year.
"We certainly recognize the federal government and provincial government have a role to play in supporting municipalities to upgrade and improve their infrastructure," said Eaton. "We certainly have, like many communities, needs in that area. Those are the two big items in the budget around revenue sharing and the infrastructure program."
There are also smaller funding options the City hopes to be part of as well.
"We are very pleased to be a part of the community rinks program that the provincial government has," said Eaton. "They have a grant program of $2,500 to support the operation of our recreational facilities, in this case rinks. It is not a huge amount of money, but we certainly appreciate the support."
Since the City has both an indoor hockey arena and a curling rink, they receive $5,000 combined.
"Another important one for us was the increase in funding for the transit program for people with disabilities," said Eaton. "There is an increase there and that is important for us because we are in the process of replacing our mobility van here in Humboldt. That's going to cost us about $100,000 and this provincial program would provide about half of that funding."
Eaton said he was also pleased to hear new funds for housing available through the provincial government as well.
"We certainly have some developers and builders here who are looking at accessing provincial programs to provide some lower income housing and perhaps even some rental apartments through some of the provincial programs," said Eaton.
Another positive program for the City was the Rural Doctor Recruitment plan the province announced in the budget.
"It helps support the recruitment efforts that our community and other communities are making to recruit doctors out to the smaller urban centres where we are trying to recruit and retain doctors," said Eaton.
There was also an increase in funding for the Community Airport partnership, which the City submitted an application for this year in order to upgrade the airport. The project will cost the City $120,000 and Eaton said they expect to access about half of it through the community airport fund.
"There were certainly some important things in the budget for us," said Eaton. "The challenge that continues to lie in front of us and the provincial government is how to deal with the major costs for upgrading infrastructure - our water and sewer and road systems. We certainly know we've got a large amount of money to spend to upgrade them over the next five to 10 years."
