County of Grande Prairie Council Chamber (photo by Liam Verster)

By Liam Verster

Gas Tax Fund advancement

Beaupre welcomes fast tracking of Gas Tax, though it’s not exactly what’s needed

Jun 1, 2020 | 3:15 PM

The Federal Government has announced that it’s fast tracking $2.2-billion from the Gas Tax Fund, to help municipalities across Canada fund infrastructure projects.

The Gas Tax is an annual funding program, which usually gets approved after the municipal budgets have been passed through the Federal Government. This year it will be dispensed to municipalities in one lump sum, rather than divided into two payments. It will also be sent out months in advance, though an exact date has not been specified.

Reeve of the County of Grande Prairie, Leanne Beaupre, says the County usually receives just over a million dollars through this fund. This money was already expected and the County had budgeted for this fund, and allocated it towards a project involving the construction and hard-surfacing of a road.

Beaupre says though it will be nice to have the money in advance, it does not mean it will affect the time line of this project.

“We’ve already identified the project for [the funding] in our 2020 Budget, and that whole process will have to go out to engineering and [a Request for Proposal] and everything else. So, it’s not as simple as saying ‘Oh, we’ll take a million dollars and kind of spread it around.'”

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Beaupre says though this is a great announcement, it isn’t what’s necessarily needed right now. There are concerns across Canada that municipalities have not seen increased funding from the Federal or Provincial Governments, while local governments have been asked to defer property taxes and find ways to help industries and rate payers who are feeling the economic pressures caused by COVID-19.

“That really transfers into being a cash flow problem for a lot of municipalities, because they expect to see cash flow increase, for example, with property taxes. They expect to see cash flow increase starting July 1.

“Many municipalities have deferred payment for those for a couple months, or three months, so they may see quite a difference in their cash flow.”

She says it would have been better to see the Federal Government send some money that was already allocated to municipalities, but didn’t have a designation for specific use like the Gas Tax Fund, in order to make up that cash flow difference.

“[The Gas Tax] is not to pay the bills. Like, a lot of the programs that have come from the Federal Government to people, whether it’s through CERB or a lot of the different federal programs where they’re giving seniors $300 to pay their bills. They’re not giving the municipalities any money to pay their bills.”

The Gas Tax has to go through from the Federal Government and the Provincial Government, before it reaches municipalities, and there is no time line set for when this money will make it to the local governments.