Northern Saskatchewan municipalities are the big winners in a new revenue sharing pool with the province.

Funding for northern municipalities will go up more than 18 per cent.

Other municipalities will see a funding increase of an average of 11 per cent.

Government Relations Minister Jim Reiter says there are a number of reasons why northern Saskatchewan has been given special consideration in the 2013 budget.

In all, the province will provide more than $264 million in revenue sharing to cities, rural municipalities, towns, villages and northern communities in the next fiscal year.

Northern municipalities will get nearly $20 million dollars.

Information such as this is usually saved until budget day, which is this coming Wednesday.

The chairwoman for New North says she’s pleased with today’s revenue sharing announcement.

Northern Saskatchewan municipalities will get a $3.1 million increase from last year.

Georgina Jolibois says the extra income is sorely needed.

The money for northern municipalities constitutes 7.5 per cent of the total allotted by the province.

The provincial government says the current formula will be re-examined once the next federal census is complete.