Wood Buffalo infrastructure funds announced
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo will receive $19.7 million from the provincial government’s department of Municipal Affairs 2012 Municipal Sustainability Initiative, and Minister of Municipal Affairs, Doug Griffiths, said this kind of stable funding is critical for building better communities.
“I’ve heard ... travelling around Alberta, in conversations on the phone to many of municipalities, that they’re very excited that the commitment to MSI has not wavered, it hasn’t grown as much as we hoped it would, but still, this year we’re going to be providing $896 million to municipalities,” said Griffiths.
He continued, “We have a firm commitment that we will continue to grow MSI and next year we were projecting to reach $1.05 billion, and $1.05 billion the year after that,” said Griffiths. “That’s a solid three-year commitment that the municipalities can be assured will be there to help them grow their communities.”
Griffiths told the Today the MSI funding is allocated through a formula, but explained they are looking at developing new policy framework to help factor in the needs of communities like the RMWB.
“I know there has been some growth in the MSI funding, but one of the challenges Fort McMurray has is a large shadow population and camp population, so I can’t say we have specific plans, but as I said today ... we need to go forward so municipalities know the roles that they play, what responsibilities they’re going to have and have the revenue matching it that can help them provide those services to Albertans in their communities.” read more here...
