Changes to the federal Gas Tax Fund for municipalities are good news for Bow Valley municipalities according to local MP Blake Richards.
The Gas Tax Fund, he said, is a key component of the Building Canada Plan and overall the plan provides opportunities for local communities.
“What I like about the Gas Tax Fund is municipalities are able to make decisions of what are the best projects for them,” Richards said. “We expanded the categories under which the money can be used and one of those is tourism infrastructure and that is great news for the Bow Valley.
“We are already preparing letters to go out to all our mayors and reeves to make sure they are fully aware of the plan.”
The Building Canada Fund was announced in last year’s budget with $14 billion over 10 years to support major economic projects. However, the details of how to qualify for money from the fund were not available until after this year’s budget was announced earlier this month.
Projects of national importance will see $4 billion in funding, while $10 billion will go to provincial and territorial infrastructure projects. Of that, $9 billion will go to national and regional projects and $1 billion will be set aside for projects in small communities with populations below 100,000.
There is also $391.5 million identified in this year’s budget for Parks Canada to improve highways, bridges and other infrastructure in the parks.
Richards said he will be advocating for projects in Banff National Park when it comes to implementation of the budget.
“The budget sets out the broad strokes and indicates the high-level aspects of what we are going to do,” he said.
Richards also pointed to measures in the budget like the Canada Jobs Grant and disaster mitigation program as relevant for the Bow Valley.
“One thing I have often talked about is labour shortage and that does affect the tourism industry and the Bow Valley as a result, so we are looking at a budget geared toward ensuring labour needs are met,” he said. “The other thing I would like to point to is the disaster mitigation program.
“That $200 million fund will look at disaster mitigation measures across the country, and as well, we will be working with the insurance industry and provincial partners on how we might develop a program for residential flood insurance.”
