Municipalities across Alberta received word recently from the provincial government indicating that $597 million of the 2019 Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding would be available sooner rather than later.
According to a government website posting, Didsbury will receive $882,851, Carstairs will get $650,142, Cremona will pick up $183,263 and Mountain View County will get $2,405,489.
In addition, the province would also be paying out monies from the Federal Gas Tax Fund (GTF) program once the funds have been received from the federal government. That number is expected to be around $470 million.
For the GTF, Didsbury will receive $595,287, Carstairs will get $460,704, Cremona will get $100,000, and Mountain View County will get $1,477,370.
MSI funding is part of the province's annual budget. With the budget not being set until later this fall because of the spring election, municpalities have been waiting months longer than usual to know what their funding allotments would be, making capital project budgeting difficult.
The minister of Municipal Affairs sent letters to municipalities last week announcing that interim MSI and GTF funding would be made available now.
Mayors from both Carstairs and Cremona confirmed that their communities received the letter.
"They're going to give interim funding to the municipalities and Metis in advance of the budget under the MSI funding and the Federal Gas Tax," said Carstairs mayor Lance Colby. "The funding under the GTF is going to be the entire amount for 2019. They're going to cut the red tape for municipalities."
Colby said the provincial government is streamlining the application process.
"You're not required to receive payment for operating allocations, instead municipalities need only to report what the funding is used for," he said. "So they haven't released it all yet but it looks like they'll give some interim MSI funding until they know what the full allocation will be."
In total, $597 million in MSI funding is being made available throughout the province.
"These allocations are going to get out so we can start looking at what our budgets are going to be," he said. "They're trying to give us enough in the MSI until they know what the budget is. It looks like they're giving out a fair amount. The balance will be figured out when they know what their budget is."
Colby expects the funding to be very similar to what they received last year.
"It's good," he said. "It doesn't really change much. You'll have to declare what you're going to spend it on. Every municipality that's forward thinking already knows what they would spend their MSI funding on. They've already planned that."
Colby said one of the projects town officials are looking at funding through MSI is the completion of the town's capital improvement program for 2018 and 2019.
"The capital program cost was around $2 million," he said. "The GTF is being used to decommission our old lift station. This money is used to tie the old left station into the one on the east side of the tracks. This involves running a line under the rail tracks to the east side lift station near the 2A."
Tim Hagen, mayor of the Village of Cremona, said that he expects the village to get around $150,000 in MSI funding.
"We received a letter," said Hagen. "I was informed by our CAO that we got 50 per cent of our MSI. We also found out that they doubled our Federal Gas Tax Fund (GTF). We usually get $50,000 so this year we got $100,000. It's an election year."
Hagen said that he has heard that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) lobbied the federal government to double the GTF on an ongoing basis.
Hagen said the $150,000 MSI amount is about half of what the village usually gets. More is expected once the fall budget comes out.
"I kind of expected that because they're cutting back on everything for now," he said. "If they give us the total amount it'll be the same as last year. We don't know what they'll give us when the budget comes down. It's hard to say. What's happening with Alberta finances, it could be less but I'm hoping not."
Hagen said that much of the MSI funding will go toward road repairs and other similar projects.
"The money we get from the gas tax we're going to see if we can upgrade our SCADA system for our water works," he said.
