MUNICIPALITIES BENEFIT FROM INNOVATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVES

To ensure Saskatchewan municipalities are Ready for Growth, the Government is launching the Saskatchewan Infrastructure Growth Initiative (SIGI) to help municipalities with the cost of infrastructure planning and improvements.

"SIGI fulfils our Government's promise to meet the real needs of municipalities, as our province continues to grow," Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Hutchinson said. "SIGI will provide interest-free loans to help municipalities keep pace with and sustain the growth of our economy."

SIGI meets the government's commitment to assist municipalities with the cost of lot development to support housing, commercial and industrial construction. This initiative provides $300 million over four years for five-year, interest-free loans. In 2008-09, $75 million in interest-free loans will be provided. In addition, this budget provides additional support to meet increased demand for subdivision approvals.

This budget also fulfils government's commitment to increase municipal revenue sharing by seven per cent over the previous year to a total of $130.1 million for 2008-09. The Ministry will be contacting urban and rural municipalities with detailed amounts and the formula used to calculate the amounts.

This budget provides $32.8 million for the federal and provincial shares of municipal infrastructure funding through the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund, the new Building Canada Fund - Communities Component and through Urban Development Agreements for Regina and Saskatoon.

In addition, $20.9 million is being provided for other municipal financial assistance grants including Transit for the Disabled, Grants in Lieu of taxes, and to support the operations of the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency.

The budget also includes a 100 per cent increase from $5 million to $10 million for the Rural Municipal Primary Weight Corridors. The increased funding will support economic development in rural Saskatchewan by helping municipalities upgrade highly used roads to accommodate primary weight truck traffic. This will help to shift heavy trucks off of thin membrane provincial highways, thus saving the province increased maintenance, rehabilitation and upgrading costs on these highways.

The budget also includes $32.4 million through the federal Gas Tax Program, reflecting the flow-through of federal gas tax funding for municipalities.

-30-

For more information, contact:

Jeff Welke
Municipal Affairs
Regina
Phone: 306-787-6156