Business View Magazine | March 2020

258 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MARCH 2020 This makes providing recreational services even more complicated, as larger centres often have non-residents travelling to them to use the facilities—bringing small amounts of income through user fees, but relying on property tax payers in the host communities to subsidize the continued operation of the facilities. Grants from other levels of government are another important way that municipalities bring in income—particularly for infrastructure. Municipal infrastructure development is not only necessary for continued residential services; it is also a major driver for the provincial or territorial economy. This, along with a shared interest in many of the services municipalities provide, prompts federal and provincial governments to redirect small portions of the income taxes they collect to municipalities through grants. We’re fortunate in Saskatchewan that we have a fairly predictable revenue sharing agreement with the provincial government that provides funding to assist municipalities with delivering services in which the province has an interest. However, while these funds do assist with operations, they are not nearly enough to address the backlog of infrastructure that needs to be constructed or rebuilt, which is why shared federal/provincial/ municipal funding programs for infrastructure, such as the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Fund, are so important. Historically, municipalities have used cycles of federal/provincial investment to drive their own infrastructure renewal cycles. This has the advantage of allowing municipalities to do more with less property tax dollars, and to capitalize on savings derived from undertaking large amounts of work at one time. Unfortunately, it also means relying on other orders of government to decide when to invest in municipalities, the types of infrastructure they wish to fund, and on what timeline they wish to invest—regardless of the actual needs in municipalities. This system needs to change for a variety of reasons. While contributions from other levels of government are essential and well-warranted for municipal infrastructure, the up and down