Putting the "pal" back in municipalities

The timing may not have been the greatest since nothing was going to push Harper's first day in office away from the front page. But the impending Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association convention provided the backdrop for some key provincial news yesterday:

Calvert's announcement, in a speech at the annual convention of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association provides an extra $52 million in grants to local governments...

The package announced by Calvert includes a permanent $10-million-per-year increase in revenue-sharing grants to local governments plus an additional one-time $10-million increase for this fiscal year.

Calvert brought the total up to $52 million by also announcing a one-time "Community Share 2006" program that will provide local governments across the province with an extra $32 million for capital projects.

While the one-time funding should be a boost in allowing municipalities to look at capital improvements, the more important part is the permanent increase in revenue-sharing grants. Thanks to Calvert's announcement, municipalities will have the opportunity both to make immediate capital investments, and ensure that sufficient ongoing funding is available to allow those investments to be maintained. And if indeed the end result is also some added ability for municipalities to avoid higher taxes while making those improvements (which unfortunately appears to be the central theme of the CP article), then all the better.

(Edit: typo.)