By paNOW Staff

RM of P.A. to build up roads with Gas Tax Fund

May 22, 2015 | 5:30 PM

The Rural Municipality (RM) of Prince Albert announced it will use its Gas Tax Fund (GTF) of $204,537 to rebuild roads.

At the RM of Prince Albert office on Friday morning Reeve Norma Sheldon made the announcement, alongside MP Randy Hoback, MLA Nadine Wilson, Delbert Kirsch and several others including SUMA and SARM representatives.

Sheldon said the funds will go towards redeveloping Gerrond Road and reconstructing Russ Stan Road.  She said work on Gerrond Road actually began in 2014 and will be completed this year.  She said they had to mesh it with the completion of the St. Louis Bridge, which didn’t open until November 2014.

“That road … has a fair amount of traffic on and off the bridge, through the RM it has a fair amount of commodity that moves through there like grain and cattle through that region, and it also was a road that was identified when the bridge was closed and we had to reroute for the bridge,” she said.

The 2015-2016 work will be on Russtan Road, which is another thoroughfare road used for hauling commodities. It runs from Highway 302 to Highway 3 and Sheldon said the work will apply to the failing portions.

SIGA

SIGA and Northern Lights Casino main sponsors of the 31st PAGC Fine Arts Festival

13h ago

Workplace incident

City of Prince Albert pleads guilty to workplace safety violation, handed fines

15h ago

Lighting it up

P.A.'s Zablocki leads Regina to victory on Day 4 at Esso Cup

Apr 24, 2024

However, the need to update roads is a good sign of a growing community, according to Sheldon.

“Our infrastructure is failing because of progress, you know, the size of a combine today versus the size of a combine in the 50s when that road was built is crazy,” she said.  “Progress is wonderful but it’s challenging.”

She said the machinery needs roads to be wide, tall, and have solid slopes.

“The farms are bigger than they ever have been, you know thousands of acres our producers are farming now and they need roads to get there.”

The wet conditions have also been challenging, which cause frost boils in the road, she said.

Funding is identified until the 2018- 2019 fiscal year and is based on current census statistics. 

“The funding will also be contingent on the census, so I mentioned before that we had a 22 per cent increase in our census in 2011, the next census will be [20]16, so we’re anticipating growth in the RM again,” she said.

By 2018, Sheldon said they expect to receive $225,422.

During 2014, 125 communities around Saskatchewan allocated more than $39 million through the federal GTF to 157 road and bridge projects.

The GTF has been in place for several years.  It’s a program that allows communities to choose and plan infrastructure projects based on their needs. Funding is provided twice a year and municipalities can pool, bank and borrow against this funding.

For a full list of how much each community receives in the constituency of Prince Albert, click here. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The story had previously stated MLA Joe Hargrave was there, which is incorrect.  It is actually MLA Delbert Kirsch.  We apologize for the error.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84