August 13, 2008

Eleven New Brunswick communities receive gas-tax revenues for infrastructure projects

GRAND FALLS, N.B.

Eleven municipalities in New Brunswick will soon begin making essential improvements to local infrastructure, after receiving their first payments under two gas-tax sharing agreements.

The Towns of Grand Falls and Saint-Quentin, as well as the Villages of Aroostook, Baker Brook, Bath, Centreville, Clair, Drummond, Kedgwick, Rivière-Verte and Sainte-Anne-de-Madawaska, will receive first payments totalling $1,234,378 from the Gas Tax Fund (GTF), to which the Government of New Brunswick will add $319,069 for a total of $1,553,447.

These funds will be used by municipalities for environmentally sustainable infrastructure projects such as water systems, wastewater treatment, community-energy systems, capacity building and local roads and bridges.

The two gas-tax sharing programs making the funding possible are the Canada-New Brunswick Agreement of the Transfer of Federal Gas Tax Revenues and the Provincial Gas Tax Transfer Top-up Fund.

“Clean drinking water and safe local roads and bridges are vital for all New Brunswick residents, and are a priority for this government,” said Mike Allen, MP for Tobique–Mactaquac.

The Government of New Brunswick will receive $116.1 million from the GTF from 2005 to 2010, to which it will add $30 million. A further $178.5 million in federal GTF investments will flow to the province from 2010 to 2014, for a total of $294.6 million in federal funding for infrastructure projects over nine years.

To receive its first payment under the GTF, each municipality submitted a five-year Capital Investment Plan for review by the province, and signed an agreement with the New Brunswick Department of Local Government to implement the plan.

Investment collaboration with provinces and municipalities is a key feature of the federal approach to infrastructure.

The GTF is a key component of the Government’s $33-billion Building Canada Plan. In Budget 2008, the Government of Canada announced that the Gas Tax Fund will become permanent from 2014, at $2 billion per year. This will facilitate long-term infrastructure planning by municipalities.

In December 2007, the governments of Canada and New Brunswick announced the signing of the Building Canada Framework Agreement. With this agreement, the Government of Canada committed to invest more than $541 million towards infrastructure needs in New Brunswick from 2007 to 2014. This includes the 2010 to 2014 Gas Tax money.

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