Cochrane's Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding will help keep Cochrane's long term planning on track.

Mayor Ivan Brooker was pleasantly surprised to learn that not only would Cochrane receive the same funding as last year but an increase.

"When we had done our budget we basically just left it at status quo because not being certain what was going to happen we didn't want to over project and we saw increases right across the board."

Due to continued strong growth, Cochrane will receive $5,970,749 in MSI capital grants in which $4,463, 429 is for MSI capital and $1,507,320 for basic municipal transportation. This year Cochrane will also receive $194,878 towards MSI operating projects.

While additional funds are always welcome, Brooker says, they never get carried away.

"Not knowing what the economy's necessarily going to do we didn't want to be caught in a negative situation, so there's quite a bit more money there than anticipated in basically every category. Operating we never use for anything more than one off projects because we are always skeptical of that being one the province continues with."

While the $194,878 grant has not been allocated for anything as of yet, Brooker, says they will find good use for the funds. 

While the budget did not provide any announcement of relief for the  Highway 1A and 22 intersection, Mayor Brooker is still optimistic saying it is only a matter of the government announcing it.

"I am not being discouraged necessarily by the intersection, they are just undertaking a new process. In previous years they always used to announce in one shot all the projects and this time around they are announcing projects over the next couple of months at most. The Minister is going to travel around the province to the different municipalities so I am still hopeful and optimistic that we have made our case that the need is there for the entire region not just the Town of Cochrane. I am still hopeful, they never gave me any indication that we shouldn't remain positive so I think over the next couple weeks to a month I hope to hear something."

Overall Brooker felt the budget was good news for our growing town and was happy the government continues to support the province's municipalities

"I think all in all it was a good budget for the Town of Cochrane obviously our grants are higher than we budgeted for so it gives us a few extra dollars."

The one negative announcement coming from the budget is an increase of the town's education requisition which is set to increase by another 15% this year as a result of our growth. Full details of the provincial budget can be found here.

 

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