Wheatland County, recognizing the importance of stable funding to support recreational activities, has introduced an unconditional grant program for facilities and programming in communities that serve the County.
The council has designated a quarter of a mill from its non-residential taxes to the Community Regional Service Infrastructure Program (CRISP). This adds up to $748,952.70.
“The bulk of the funds went to the towns and villages, and we kept about $100,000 for Gleichen and Carseland,” said Reeve Glenn Koester. “These are part of the County so we had community meetings to see what is important to those communities. We also hired someone to do an infrastructure assessment.”
Based on the communities’ service population per cent, the Community Regional Services Infrastructure Program (CRISP) funding was allocated as:
Strathmore—$204,464.09
Hussar—$71,150.51
Rockyford—$105,602.33
Standard—$89,874.32
Gleichen—$134,811.49
Carseland—$125,075.10
Drumheller—$17,974.86
Koester says these are five year agreements.
“For as variable as the assessment is, we can’t guarantee it to the dollar, but for five years this money should be coming their way,” he said.
Province wide, the government has undertaken revamping the Municipal Government Act (MGA). There has been discussion on redistributing linear taxes. These are taxes on linear properties like pipelines, electric power properties and oil and gas wells.
“We started talking about this before the MGA came down, so we thought we would go ahead with it anyway. If the MGA wants us to do more, we are certainly open to that,’ said Koester. “If the MGA says we don’t have to do it, we won’t take it back.”
