City, regional district not feeling pressure of late infrastructure funding information

By MICHELE YOUNG

Kamloops City council deliberately avoided relying on federal infrastructure money for any projects this year because of uncertainty about the fund’s future.

While Ottawa has come out with the New Building Canada Plan that includes a $14-billion infrastructure fund, renewed federal Gas Tax Fund, Goods and Services Tax Rebate for Municipalities and Private-Public Partnership fund, information about the application process has been so late getting out that some municipalities are having to start projects late or put them off until next year.
Kamloops City council didn’t take on any major projects that would rely on those funds because there was so much uncertainty about the funding programs, Mayor Peter Milobar said Tuesday.
“We don’t have our wagon hitched on any outstanding applications,” he said.
That means no major projects will be at a standstill until the federal process is sorted out.
Kamloops MP Cathy McLeod released some information about eligibility for the funds a couple of weeks ago. It was broadened from mostly water, waste and road infrastructure to include culture, tourism and sport, which means there could be money to go toward the City’s proposed performing arts centre.
There are a few projects relying on the federal Gas Tax Fund. The biggest of those is improvements to Todd Road in Barnhartvale. Residents there lobbied for changes to make the road safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Council agreed to the changes, but only by drawing the $750,000 from the gas tax fund.
“We want it coming out of gas tax allotment. We’ve said in budget, too, that we are putting it on hold until the Gas Tax Fund comes through,” he said.
“We’re still waiting for 100 per cent confirmation (about the amount the City will get).”
Last year, the City received about $3 million from that fund — money that has been used in the past for projects such as the installation of water meters into all Kamloops homes.
“You still have to get approved, then get your contribution agreement, it’s not really unusual,” the mayor said.
Milobar said the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board took the same cautious approach about taking on any major projects when there was uncertainty about federal infrastructure funding.
“Because we weren’t sure what was going to happen, there are not a lot of grant requests out there right now.”
The $14-billion New Building Canada Fund is set for the next 10 years as part of the $53-billion Building Canada Plan. The Gas Tax Fund includes $21.8 billion, the Goods and Services Tax Rebate for Municipalities contains $10.4 billion and the Private-Public Partnerships (renewed for five years) has $1.25 billion in it.