Northern Mayors Unhappy with Funding Restraints

Wednesday, September 01, 2004 at 13:15

 

 

Some northern municipalities hope to use a roundtable meeting with provincial cabinet ministers next week to lobby for greater access to capital funding.

 

Several member communities of the group New North are upset there are so many strings attached to funding available in the Northern Revenue Sharing Trust Account.

 

Ile-a-la-Crosse mayor Max Morin says funding requests are turned down too many times for legitimate community needs.

 

Morin also says many northern mayors don’t like the fact that the government unilaterally put over 80 per cent of one million dollars in extra funding for northern municipalities this year into the NRSTA.

 

Government Relations minister Len Taylor says the province has adopted these measures because it doesn’t want to jeopardize federal funding for sewer and water projects.

 

Taylor also says northern municipalities have not been dealt with unfairly in regards to funding for sewer and water upgrades. He says statistics show the majority of the sewer and water funding applications from the North get approved, while the majority of southern municipalities go home empty-handed.

 

Seven provincial cabinet ministers, including Taylor, will be in La Ronge on September 10th to discuss municipal issues with northern mayors.