Kamloops is expecting several million dollars as part of the federal government’s announcement to “rush out” $2.2 billion in gas tax funding to municipalities.
Finance director Kathy Humphrey points out the city deferred more than $2.3 million in spending this year which would’ve been paid for with gas tax funds, also known as Community Works funds.
“The City receives about $3.8 million dollars each year in Community Works funding, and so this will be great because we’ll get all the money in June. And then we can take it to council and have them decide which of our projects they want to put back on the books,” Humphrey tells NL News.
Community Works funds are paid out twice yearly by the federal government to more than 3,600 local governments across the country.
“As part of our COVID redo of our budget back in April, we were not sure whether or not the Community Works funding would continue at all this year,” Humphrey says, pointing out those funds will now be paid out in one go instead of two instalments.
Before COVID-19, the city had planned to spend more than $1.6 million in gas tax funds on active transportation.
Other projects included crosswalks and an expansion to pickleball, and various other projects worth smaller amounts of money.