Infrastructure funding top of mind among Sask. urban municipalities

CBC

14-04-2025

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The cost of improving and building new local infrastructure — and who will pay for it — has become one of the focuses at this year's annual conference of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA).
SUMA president Randy Goulden said the federal government's Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) is already tapped out.
"I've talked to so many municipalities, our members, these last few days very concerned because the program, it's allocated fully. There's nothing else coming out and it is essential that we get some funding," Goulden told media during a scrum on on Monday.
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Goulden stressed that municipalities are not asking for handouts. She said they want to be partners with the federal and provincial governments.
"We need those things so that our communities can continue to be sustainable and provide the jobs and the industry and the commerce to make our province healthy, but also to feed everything that the province has to do around health and education," Goulden said.
Provincial political leaders respond
Held in Saskatoon, this year's SUMA conference featured appearances from Premier Scott Moe and Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck.
Moe agreed with Goulden, saying a new infrastructure program should be a priority for whoever forms government after this month's federal election.
Moe said inflation has affected every municipality in the province.
"We will need a new long-term stable infrastructure funding model so that municipalities can plan, and so that they can cost-share not only with the federal government, but with the provincial levels of government as well," Moe said.
Beck said she agrees that the federal government needs to lend a hand, but also accused the provincial government of a lack of action.
Beck said she's spoken to many urban officials at SUMA and at other events and heard the same complaint — that the funding the province provides to municipalities isn't enough.
"[Municipalities] are responsible for about 60 per cent of the infrastructure in this province, but they have access to only less than $0.10, about $0.08 for every dollar. That is simply not a workable situation without support from other levels of government," Beck said.
Moe touted his government's "record increase" in municipal revenue sharing as proof of how serious it takes the issue of infrastructure.
In its 2025/2026 budget, the province boosted municipal revenue sharing by $22 million to a total of $362 million. That was a 6.3 per cent increase from the previous year's budget.
Moe said that money is disbursed to municipalities with no strings attached and that makes it a "one-of-a-kind program."
Goulden thanked the province for that increase.
The SUMA president also urged the province to meet with municipalities as soon as the federal election is over to "hit the ground running" and ensure all levels of government are on the same page.