(The Canadian Press)

By Alison Sandstrom

COVID-19 recovery

P.A. to receive estimated $5.1 million of provincial infrastructure funding

May 8, 2020 | 5:54 PM

Prince Albert is among municipalities getting a boost from the provincial government.

City Manager Jim Toye told paNOW the city is set to receive around $5.1 million through the newly reinstated Municipal Economic Enhancement Program. The program will provide $150 million over two years for municipal infrastructure projects. It’s part of a major stimulus package announced Wednesday aimed at helping Saskatchewan’s economy rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s great news for the city,” Toye said. “We weren’t sure how the cut was going to be, but when we drilled down into the numbers, we’re right around that $5.1 million mark, which is good for us.”

P.A. city administration is still waiting on full details from the province on exactly what kinds of projects will qualify for funding, but once they have that information, Toye said staff will prepare a list of options for council to choose from.

“We’ll sit down with them and say, ‘Here’s some projects that we have in our five-year plan, is there anything here you’d like to prioritize?’ And they will tell us where to spend the money,” he explained.

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Prince Albert has several major infrastructure projects on the horizon, including an expansion at the sewage treatment plant worth tens of millions of dollars and a new storage tank at the water treatment plant. There’s also planned road upgrades.

“We could easily put all that money into water and sewer. Easy,” Toye said. “But we want to move it around a little bit, we don’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket. Even some of the smaller projects are very important.”

Toye said the money could potentially also be put toward Prince Albert’s portion of a new $60 million recreation complex. The city is still in the process of finalizing the land acquisition for that project, but once it’s complete, the location will be announced, Toye said.

Provincial money doesn’t cover revenue shortfall

Meanwhile Prince Albert is still dealing with a revenue shortfall caused by the pandemic and the provincial money announced Wednesday will not go directly toward balancing its books.

For that, Toye is looking toward the federal government. He said the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has written to Ottawa to request $10 billion in funding for cities.

“We’ve heard lots from Prime Minister Trudeau about all these different initiatives for various sectors… we believe they should also be making an announcement regarding municipalities,” he said.

“We’re going to be in tough by the end of this year and hopefully it can help alleviate some of that.”

If money does flow from the federal government, Toye said it should be without conditions on how cities can spend it.

“The needs of each municipality are different,” he explained. “If we use it to balance the budget, that’s fine, if we use it to buy a new back hoe that should be fine.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom