Changes to former gas tax could put Sask. municipalities in rut

The president of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) is concerned after learning the federal government is proposing changes to the Canada Community Building Fund (CCBF) — formerly known as the gas tax.

The proposed changes could require larger municipalities to put more emphasis on using funding for affordable housing and increasing their reporting to be eligible for the funds.

“The fund is one of the only predictable funding streams provided by the Government of Canada to municipalities. It’s not an operating grant; it’s specifically to help municipalities fund our ongoing infrastructure needs,” SUMA president Randy Goulden said on Tuesday’s Evan Bray Show.

“Those infrastructure needs have really grown. They’re everything from wastewater (to) clean drinking water (to) our streets and our roads.”

Goulden suggested municipal governments would have to submit more data in order to possibly get more funding for affordable housing projects.

“What they’re saying is, ‘We may be putting in these changes that will require more emphasis on using that CCBF funding for affordable housing,’ ” Goulden said. “Along with that, it would increase the reporting to be eligible for those funds.

“Those kinds of changes we’re very concerned about, because in our minds, they’re starting with (populations of over) 30,000 — but will that shift? Will that change with urban municipalities with less urban population levels?”

Goulden said that right now, municipalities know this funding is going to be coming on a base per-capita basis, which allows municipalities to add it into their budgets.

Goulden said if that specific funding isn’t available, it will make it tough for municipalities to plan for the future.

“(In) my city, the City of Yorkton, there is a very large road project that we’re doing which is absolutely necessary to get our canola to our canola crushing plants,” she said. “We’ve been planning that for 10 years and this funding is part of it. But if we don’t have that, we can’t plan and we have no idea what’s coming and we certainly don’t want to see that.”

Goulden said SUMA officials plan to speak with the federal minister of housing and MPs from across Saskatchewan to talk about what these changes could mean for the province.

“The concern we have here is the emphasis on affordable houses — those affordable houses need to have the infrastructure to be built on — so it could further erode what we’re looking forward to into the future to help with the housing crisis,” she said.

Goulden said it’s an immediate concern that SUMA has and one that needs to be addressed right now.

“We’re going to be putting a call out to all of members across the province to talk with their MPs (and) MLAs and bring forth examples of what this could do to municipalities and how it can impact us,” she said.