There were a few unwelcome surprises in the June 1 provincial budget and one of them was a funding cut to the Battlefords River Valley.
Finance minister Kevin Doherty announced a funding cut of $540,000 to the river valley and four other municipal parks in the province.
The news came as a shock to Councillor Ryan Bater, who is North Battleford’s representative on the Battlefords River Valley board along with Mayor Ian Hamilton. Mayor Derek Mahon and Councillor Doug Laing represent the Town of Battleford on that board as well.
In speaking to the News-OptimistThursday, Bater said the province funded 50 per cent of the Battlefords River Valley, with the remaining 50 per cent funded by the City and Town on a per capita basis.
“As of yesterday, with no notice, half of our funding is gone,” said Bater.
“We’re still dealing with the fallout of just getting that information. We understand that the announcement is immediate, so there’s no warning. And we’re going to have to rework our efforts for the summer because it’s already June.”
That provincial funding amounted to around $86,000 annually, according to Bater.
The announcement puts into jeopardy a number of potential capital projects that were planned for this summer in the river valley.
Bater noted there was a five-year agreement with the province for the Battlefords River Valley funding.
“We initiated all of our projects, they went to tender already to do our capital projects for the summer in the river valley in good faith, because we had this agreement.
“So now, we have to meet as a board and discuss whether we’re able to do those projects this year, and my understanding is a few have already been awarded. So that’s obviously something up for discussion between the City and the Town.”
Bater has a issue with how the budget announcement was handled. He noted Saskatoon Meewasin and Regina Wascana will still get some funding for this year only, before it disappears.
“They have a year to plan, to strategize and to figure out how they are going to move forward,” said Bater. “We weren’t given that luxury of a year. We were given no notice. And until yesterday there was no indication that funding was in jeopardy. So this caught us all off guard and cut us off at the knees.”
He called the river valley important to all the people who live in the area and important as a tourism generator.
“Now that we’re hosting events like the Fin Island trail run on an annual basis and attracting hundreds of people down here, expanding and maintaining our trail system and our lighting systems and all the infrastructure here is absolutely critical to the future economic development of this community, and I’m still in shock over the announcement.”
Bater is hoping there is enough money left to maintain the trails, as they have been doing year round.
“But expansion, I don’t think is an option for us without this provincial funding,” Bater said. Such things as expansion of the trails, signage, lighting, making the trail system safer and more accessible, even washrooms, are all going to be “very difficult to do.”
While the Battlefords River Valley Visitor Centre is located in the river valley, there should really be no impact to Destination Battlefords, whose offices are in the building.
Bater, who works as their executive director in his day job, said they were able to get all their renovations completed before the announcement, so they are unaffected.
“The only impact on us is we promote the River Valley, and so with less infrastructure to promote it impacts us a little,” said Bater. “But it doesn’t impact our operations at all.”
The next step now is to figure out what to do in the future. The battlefords River Valley Board meets again on June 13, where Bater expects the City and Town representatives will discuss a plan for the future.
“My hope is the City and town will maintain the funding they’ve been providing, at a minimum, so we can at least maintain the infrastructure that’s here,” Bater said.
