The Weyburn-Big Muddy riding will be seeing benefits out of the provincial budget, which was brought down on April 10, but no announcements yet regarding the coming hospital for Weyburn, MLA Dustin Duncan told members of the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce on Friday.
The MLA and Environment Minister held a briefing about the budget at the Weyburn Legion Hall, and outlined money for a new elementary school and for highways improvements as some of the benefits this riding will see from the budget.
The Southeast Cornerstone School Division is receiving $12.2 million for the new elementary school, for the first year of a two-year project, which will include design of the new school and demolition of the former Weyburn Junior High School building, where the new elementary school and the City’s recreation and culture centre will be built.
For municipal revenue-sharing, Weyburn will be getting about $1.9 million, “which is roughly the same as last year,” said Duncan.
Funding for highways improvements in the riding area includes starting a series of twinning and passing lane projects on Highways 6 and 39 between Regina and Estevan. Two sets of passing lanes will be built on Highway 6 between Regina and the junction of Highway 39 near Corinne this year.
“We’re also hopeful the federal government will have some funds for us so we can speed up the time line and we can do more than just the two passing lanes,” said Duncan.
“Obviously we really wanted to twin the highway from Regina to Estevan,” he added, noting this is a long-term plan that will cost upwards of $1 billion to complete. “I don’t think it’s realistic to ask people to wait for that. It’ll be a combination of passing and twinning lanes.”
Duncan added that this year there will also be repaving of 24 kilometres of Highway 35 south of Weyburn, but noted the location of this section hasn’t been fully set. There will also be a micro-surfacing project on Highway 13.
He noted the government is “on track” to a balanced budget in 2019, with a deficit of around $360 million for this year, far better than neighbouring Alberta, which isn’t forecasting a balanced budget until 2023-24.
“We wanted to make sure while we’re going into challenging commodity prices to get away from a reliance on commodities,” said Duncan, noting that the non-renewable resources only comprise about 10 per cent of their revenues in this budget, down from 32 per cent a few years ago.
As there was no money in the budget for a new acute-care hospital for Weyburn, Duncan took time to explain why Weyburn was once again left out.
He noted there are two major provincial health care facilities that are just finishing up this year, including the last year of construction on a new facility in North Battleford to replace the 104-year-old building there, and $20 million for the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon.
The MLA noted that the North Battleford project is a P3 project, which means there are private partners with the government, and taxpayers do not have to pay when there are cost over-runs on the project.
For next year, there are two health care facilities that are left to be funded, Weyburn’s and Prince Albert’s, and Duncan’s hope is that only these two will be in the budget for Health for construction.
Duncan also commented about the ending of the rental supplement program, which he admits has been “controversial” for the government since the budget was announced.
He said part of the challenge for Sask. Housing is the high number of vacancies right now for housing units, some 2-3,000 units province-wide. He pinpointed the vacancy rate at around 9 to 10 per cent right now.
“Rents haven’t come down because of the supplement keeping rent rates up, so we are moving away from that,” said Duncan, adding that the market should correct itself and have rental rates go lower again once the supplements are not impacting on the rates.
“Over 40 per cent of rents in Regina are supplemented in part or in whole by the government,” he added, pointing out that the supplement will not change for people who are already on it.
Asked about rumours that the Court House in Weyburn might be put up for sale, Duncan said there are no plans whatsoever to sell the property. The rumours came out of the SUMA convention, he said, where the minister made the suggestion to city and town councils that if there are any government-owned buildings in their communities that are being under-utilized, the municipality could apply to use those properties.
Duncan noted that most of these are office buildings or other facilities, and do not include the Court House in Weyburn.
“It was a challenge to RMs, towns and cities that if they have a better use for a building, they could suggest that to the government. We don’t have a list of building that we’re selling or anything,” he said, adding this also does not include the Auburn Pepper Building in Weyburn, which houses a number of government offices at the mall.
