By GREG NIKKEL, of the Weyburn Review
The Weyburn area will see more money for health care and city infrastructure, and possibly more money for the proposed integration of the Weyburn Comprehensive and Southeast Regional College facilities, as a result of the provincial budget announced on Friday.
In a budget described as "a balanced approach" by Weyburn-Big Muddy MLA Judy Bradley, the South Central Health District appears to be the big local winner this year, along with the city which will participate in a $10 million infrastructure program.
"I think this year we didn't have as much flexibility, with issues in agriculture and costs to fight forest fires putting more pressure on us. I think we've got a fairly balanced budget with a significant investment in health care," said Bradley of Finance Minister Eric Cline's budget, the sixth balanced budget in a row.
While she didn't have the full details about the proposed Comp and college integration, the MLA said she will be in the city around the third week of April to make an announcement about the project.
"I have said officially it looks very positive. It may not be the Cadillac version, but I think they'll be very happy with it. I think it's very good news for our constituency," said Bradley, adding a one-point decrease in the provincial sales tax will prove beneficial for municipalities as well as for the general public. The MLA, who is also the Highways and Transportation Minister, is on a budget tour in the North Battleford-Prince Albert region this week, while Weyburn was visited by Economic Development Minister Janice MacKinnon on Monday.
In a speech to the Weyburn and District Chamber of Commerce at the Elks Hall, MacKinnon outlined the major highlights of the budget brought down in the legislature on Friday, and fielded questions from the audience of around 35 people.
"It's a balanced budget with the dollars going into tax reduction, debt reduction and services," said MacKinnon.
The South Central Health District will receive a total funding increase of 6.64 per cent, with an increase of $1.13 million to the base funding over last year, said Lee Spencer, CEO and president. The increase will bring the base funding for South Central up to $28.54 million for this year.
Provincially, the health-care budget was increased by 11 per cent to $1.9 billion, the highest amount in the province's history. MacKinnon noted that $1.3 billion of this amount will be going to the front-line workers in salaries and benefits. Of the remainder, $12 million will go towards reducing waiting lists for surgery, $800,000 will be put towards various health programs, and $5.2 million for an enhanced home-care program.
"As far as I'm concerned, this is one of the most positive and progressive budgets that we've had in the time I've been working here. I think what it will allow us to do is beef up the programs we have and provide relief for the staff. It'll make the staff more secure and build up their confidence, as opposed to starting up new programs or bringing on new staff," said Spencer.
Broken down by sector, acute care will see an increase of $245,913; long-term care will go up by $515,944; home-based services received a hike of $81,294; emergency response had an increase of $10,371; addictions services went up by $3,022; community health went up by $54,150; mental health services was hiked by $182,968; rehabilitation services was increased by $5,401; and health improvement initiatives and community care initiatives will both remain at the same level.
Over and above this base funding for health care, the district will also receive $274,128 to help them prepare health-care equipment and computers for the Year 2000, and $421,016 has been designated as retroactive funding for collective bargaining settlements. The province has also set aside $250,000 which will go towards a portable CT scanning unit for the southern health districts. Spencer said talks will have to be held with the other area health districts on how this unit will operate and who will participate in its use.
"This budget will allow us to drive the car we presently have but in better shape. It'll allow our organization to grow and allow us to heal some old wounds, if I may put it that way," said the CEO.
Mayor Don Schlosser said the one-point reduction in the sales tax will save the city around $50,000 a year, or around $37,000 for the balance of 1999. He also praised the introduction of a $10 million infrastructure grant program, in which municipalities will share the costs 50-50.
Schlosser and the other 11 city mayors met on Tuesday to decide on how the money will be dispersed, telling the audience at the chamber meeting Weyburn will likely get around $80-90,000.
MLA Bradley said the infrastructure program will have $7.5 million designated for urban projects, $2 million for rural areas and the balance for northern projects.
"It's a start. We're hoping we can get involved in highways and infrastructure cost-sharing with the federal government. That's one of the reasons we held back some, as we'll be having some meetings in April and May. One is with stakeholders, to put some pressure on the federal government, and the other is with the provinces and the federal government, and hopefully we'll hear some real details about a program," said the highways minister, adding her department had a $15 million increase from their budget last year.
"I'm hoping if we get that kind of program, along with the reduction in the sales tax, that we'll be able to hold the line on taxes for our citizens," said the mayor.
Following the meeting, Mayor Schlosser said the infrastructure program announcement was the biggest part of the budget which will benefit the city, along with an increase in the grants-in-lieu program. The city will receive $170,000, double last year's amount.
"The big thing is I was happy the province finally decided to give us some funding as far as infrastructure goes. We've been trying to get that funding for a number of years," said the mayor. The city council will now finalize its budget process, and will discuss it in committee at their April 12th meeting.
For the city's business community, the main news to come out of the budget was the reduction in the sales tax, said chamber president Les Winter.
"The sales tax is a positive, it certainly helps put more funds into citizens' pockets when they're purchasing. I think there could've been more for this particular area allocated for highways," said Winter, adding it seems the budget is setting the government up for an election this spring.
"I'm not certain all the health-care dollars have been replaced from what's been taken out. This budget is kind of a take-care-of-election budget," he said.
For the Weyburn School Division No. 97 and Comprehensive School Division, secretary-treasurer Gord Young said the total increase announced for education of around $15 million for the province will only just cover the negotiated salary increase for teachers from last year.
Young said as there was an increase in the enrolment of around 40 students, there will be more money coming in to the school board on that basis. Meanwhile, some capital projects are still on the waiting list, with regional meetings to be held in the next couple of weeks to announce which projects will be dealt with this year.
Besides the proposed integration of the Comp and regional college, the roofs for both the Comp and Weyburn Junior High require work, as they were both rejected for funding last year. The Comp board's preliminary budget should be ready to be considered at their April 6 meeting, while the public board's budget will have a preliminary look on April 12.
Young noted that due to the date of the budget presentation, the department of Education has extended the deadline for school districts to set their mill rates until April 30.
Crandall Hrynkiw, director of education for the Central and Separate school divisions, said the budget numbers have not been verified for the two boards as yet.
Questioned on the support for education, MacKinnon said on Monday while health care received a large part of the budgetary support, education will certainly be looked at in coming years.
"We're now spending 40 per cent of the budget on health care, but we can't continue down that road forever because we have to also support education. We can't ignore education, because in the 21st century people will have to have a good education," she said.
Minister Bradley said there will be ongoing work on the province's roads and highways as a result of the budget, including a number local projects.
"The opposition has said we promised to spend $250 million a year on highways. We never said that; we did say we'd spend $2.5 billion over 10 years. To meet our commitments we'll have to go over that $250 million a year anyway," she said.
Some of the work to be done this year includes paving Highway 6 south of Ceylon, and work on Highway 13 from Forget to Stoughton. Work on Highway 35, finishing the highway to the U.S. border, may be done later in the season, and preservation work is planned for sections of Highways 6 and 39, said the minister.
There will also be ongoing partnerships pursued with municipalities this year, said Bradley, "to work with areas where they're trying to manage heavy truck traffic on thin-membrane roads." The partnerships of splitting road repair costs began to a certain extent last year.
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