A funding formula based on population, education property tax paid to the province, and the kilometres of road located in the municipality is being used to calculate a funding program which will give Alberta’s 359 municipalities a total of $11.3 over the next 10 years. “This is all new money,” Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Ray Danyluk, said in his keynote address at the Northern Lights Library System Conference in Elk Point on Saturday.
“Municipalities need to know that they will have support going into the future, and this is 10 years into the future. Each municipality knows what they will get, and it is explicit that they can use it for whatever they need it for. That is stability, and it allows them to look into the future It’s very hard to plan if you don’t know what you’re getting.”
The Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) is calculated on a formula that is calculated 48 per cent on a municipality’s population, 48 per cent on the education tax requisition and the remaining four per cent on the kilometres of roads, Danyluk said.
“Elk Point has a population of 1,512 and 27 km of roads. In 2007-08, Elk Point gets $160,568, in 2008-09, that goes up to $302,908, the year after to $334,219, and there’s seven years at $661,728, for a total of $5,422,858 in new money.”
The County of St. Paul, with a population of approximately 6,000, will receive $692.689. $1,266,496, $1,503,370 and $3,415,433 for those same years, for a total of $27,370,587, while the Town of St. Paul will receive $346,549, $815,546, $934,925 and $1,940,718 for a total of $15,682,045 over the ten-year period.
Smaller communities will also see a huge influx of funding through the program. Derwent qualifies for $9,888 the first year, followed by $53,861, $55,889 and $157,448 for a total of $1,221,774.
Danyluk said amounts after the first year are estimates, and will be updated with changes in population, education requisitions and roads.
