Aalbers drills down into budgets

Mayor Gerald Aalbers. File Photo

 

Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers is drilling into the new 2023 federal budget this week after sifting through Saskatchewan’s latest budget in search of investments in our city.

“We’ll wait and see what’s in it for all Canadians, and in particular, municipalities,” said Aalbers just hours before the federal budget was tabled on Tuesday.

“I know they’ve given the provinces more money for health care already.”

Aalbers is all ears to learn the amount of the Canada Community-Building Fund, formerly called the Gas Tax Fund, which provinces and territories allocate to municipalities to support local infrastructure priorities.

“We’re curious to see where that comes out at,” said Aalbers.

“They haven’t come out and said they are going to double it again this year. It just allows us to do more roadwork and things like that.”

Lloydminster will get a piece of the provincial pie from the record $297.9 million in Municipal Revenue Sharing (MRS) the Saskatchewan government announced last Wednesday.

MRS sharing is part of $503 million in direct support of Saskatchewan municipalities.

Aalbers says MRS is based on the provincial sales tax charged by the province.

“So it’s reflective of an improved economy,” said Aalbers.

Specifically, it’s based on three-quarters of one point of PST revenue from two years prior.

“The economy started to recover two years ago and we’re seeing that benefit in the PST that’s being shared with municipalities across Saskatchewan,” explained Aalbers.

The mayor says the administration is crunching the numbers to see what the city’s share of MRS will be.

“We have an expectation it’s not going to be huge from our perspective,” he said.

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Geoff Lee
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