If you’re hearing it from Mayor Ray Stern, there’s next to nothing for Slave Lake in the new provincial budget that Finance Minister Pat Nelson delivered last Tuesday.
Chances are that Slave Lake property owners will see an increase in education taxes this year, which will translate into a higher bottom line.
“But there’s no good news for municipal entities at all,” says Stern. Unless, of course, one considers the multitude of infrastructure projects that’ll begin to take shape in coming months and years.
“Maybe the back-handed good news is that money will be spent on highways,” and that’ll mean jobs for the construction industry in the area, says Stern.
As for the new $2.2 billion stabilization fund that the province is setting up so it’s not left at the mercy of bouncing oil and gas prices, Stern predicts the plan “will work unless we have a sustained down-turn, then it’ll be all eaten up.”
But if you hear Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pearl Calahasen’s version of the same story, the budget is a windfall of mammoth proportion. Particularly so with the province’s promise to spend $5.5 billion on infrastructure projects.
“We’re looking at some major highway projects in the constituency, (including) paving, overlays and a number of bridge replacements,” an excited Calahasen said Wednesday.
In the Slave Lake area the infrastructure cash will come in the form of grants for water and wastewater treatment and street improvement programs, as well as those for hamlets within the Municipal District of Lesser Slave River.
Reeve Sheila Foley says the infrastructure cash will be a boon for municipalities that qualify. “But we’ve been approved for things in the past, so already have our grants.”
Late Friday The Leader received a release from Municipal Affairs Minister Guy Boutilier saying both municipalities would receive unconditional grants as a result of the budget – the Town receiving $50,000 and change, the M.D. just over $7,200.
But the grants are nothing new, according to the Town’s secretary-treasurer, Irene Sasyniuk. In fact, the grants are an annual allocation and have already been included in the annual budget.

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