Council approves road funding

Mountain View County council has approved a plan to use $56,000 in excess federal gas tax funding to support the municipality’s rechipping road program.

The move came by way of motion at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.

“The federal gas tax funding (GTF) provides predictable, long-term, stable funding for Canadian municipalities to help them build and revitalize their local public infrastructure while creating jobs and long-term prosperity,” administration said in a briefing note to council.

GTF funding is provided to provinces and territories, which in turn flow this funding to municipalities, council heard.

“Municipalities can pool, bank and borrow against this funding, providing significant financial flexibility. The GTF is intended to cover capital costs only and may not be used for maintenance costs, operating costs, debt reduction, or replacement of existing municipal infrastructure expenditures.” In 2017, Mountain View County received GTF of $668,486. The county budget for 2018 was based on this figure and was set at $665,000 to cover a portion of the costs associated with rechipping.

The actual receipt of GTF for 2018 will be $721,084, which will provide the county with excess funds of $56,084.

“Due to the large annual cost for the County’s rechipping process, it is recommended that the excess GTF be appropriated to rechipping costs for 2018 as well.”

On a year-to-date basis to Aug. 31, 2018, the county has spent approximately $1,207,000 on internal rechipping.

Meanwhile, council has approved the terms of reference for a new county committee that will examine long-range infrastructure requirements for the municipality.

The move also came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.

“The county long-range infrastructure plan (CLIP) committee will create and maintain strategy related to county infrastructure such as roads, bridges, buildings, airports, industrial parks, water, wastewater, recreation, land, and fleet,” administration said in a briefing note to council.

“Utilizing the strategy, the committee will be tasked with compiling, reviewing and updating a county long-range infrastructure plan on an annual basis.”

The CHIP committee membership will include the director of operational services, the assistant director of operational services/emergency management, the projects coordinator with operational services, the director of planning and development, the director of legislative, community and agricultural services, the director of corporate service, the economic development officer and one county councillor.

In other council news, councillors have approved a resolution regarding base year modifiers for linear assessment.

The move also came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.

Base year modifiers are mechanisms to adjust the base assessment value up and down to reflect current costs.

The resolution calls on the Rural Municipalities of Alberta to lobby the provincial government to “set the annual date of release of base year modifiers at Sept. 15 or the nearest business day afterwards to allow municipalities to be more informed when making budget decisions.”

The resolution would come before the upcoming fall convention of the RMA, which represents 69 rural municipalities.

“As linear tax accounts for a large portion of municipal taxes for many rural municipalities, a set date for the release of base year modifiers will allow better budget planning, more input from the public and lessen the chances of significant swings in the budgetary process,” administration said in a briefing note to council.