EAST CENTRAL — Local communities will benefit as the province distributes $70.3 million from its share of the federal Safe Restart Canada Plan.
Humboldt will receive $350,000, Melfort $357,000, Tisdale $193,000 and Nipawin $263,000. The funding is aimed at helping municipal governments deal with the COVID-19 pandemic
Lori Carr, the provincial government relations minister, announced Sept. 9 that the money will begin to be distributed immediately to all compliant Saskatchewan municipalities
“As Saskatchewan returns to a new normal, this is another important investment to help municipalities and their residents weather the storm,” Carr said. “This funding will support efforts to protect health and safety, prepare for potential future waves of COVID-19, and facilitate the safe re-opening of economies.”
Of the $70.3 million, $62.26 million will be granted in general municipal support on a per capita basis, while $8.07 million will be allocated to municipal public transit support for the four cities with transit systems, based on ridership.
“Quickly and efficiently, the amounts will start to be distributed immediately so municipal leaders can funnel dollars to areas of highest local priority,” the release said.
Trent Wotherspoon, the NDP’s finance critic, said the federal dollars will be certainly well-received by municipalities, but he called on the province to remove the PST on construction labour for municipal projects.
“We need to maximize value out of precious tax dollars,” he said. “At this time, and when municipalities are building new municipal infrastructure projects, it makes no sense at all that you're using hard earned property tax dollars paid by property tax payers to pay the PST to the provincial government.”
The ministry will be contacting all municipalities directly with details about their specific allocation. The list, which runs 17 pages, shows the top allocations are to Saskatoon ($19 million), Regina ($16.3 million), Prince Albert ($2.3 million) and Moose Jaw ($2.2 million) (numbers rounded off).
Four larger centres are receiving transit allocations, based on 34.86 cents per rider. Included in the above numbers, Saskatoon is getting $4.3 million, Regina is receiving $3.5 million, Moose Jaw is getting $161,000 and Prince Albert is getting $141,000.
Saskatchewan’s remaining cities’ allocations vary from $990,000 for Swift Current down to $272,000 for Melville.
Among 147 towns, Nipawin gets the largest allocation, while Scott has the smallest, at $4,355. Only three towns will receive less than $10,000.
The 250 villages will receive between $59,292 for Caronport (pop. 994) and $1,193 for Wood Mountain, (pop. 20).
The 41 resort villages vary between Candle Lake (pop. 840), which is allocated $50,109, and Greig (pop. 10), which gets $597.
There are 296 rural municipalities, and their allocations vary from $511,000 for the RM of Corman Park (pop. 8,568) to $4,295 for the RM of Glen McPherson (pop. 72).
Northern towns, villages and hamlets will see allocations ranging from $168,642 for La Loche to $1,790 for Dore Lake (pop. 30).
This federal funding was matched by $150 million dollars announced previously from the Government of Saskatchewan in the Municipal Economic Enhancement Program.
The release noted this summer, the province “fast-tracked a record breaking $278 million in Municipal Revenue Sharing. Annual, no-strings attached funding was paid directly to municipalities to support local priorities and recovery efforts.”
Editor’s note: Local information has been added to this article.
