Federal Gas Tax Fund to direct $580,000 to Prince Rupert

The City of Prince Rupert is one of a number of Northwest communities
that will be sharing in Federal money distributed from the Federal Gas Tax Fund

As July was winding down, the Federal Government released the list of British Columbia communities to receive funding from the Federal Gas Tax Fund and for Prince Rupert, the share of the federal money will come to just below $600,000.

The funding which is administered through the Union of British Columbia Municipalities will see the City of Prince Rupert receive $580,145 from the federal fund.

The North Coast Regional District also received $201,243 as their share of the cash flow from the fund designed to update community infrastructure needs and create economic growth. The monetary injection is designed to provide each community with a permanent, predictable and indexed source of long-term funding.

The additional monetary support is paid out to communities in two instalments, one in July, the other in November.

Among the highlights of the program are the flexibility that communities have when it comes to how they will make use of the federal transfer.

The federal Gas Tax Fund offers significant flexibility. Local communities can make strategic investments across 18 different project categories, including roads and bridges, public transit, drinking water and waste water infrastructure, and recreational facilities. 

Communities can use the funds immediately for priority projects, bank the funds for later use, pool the dollars with other communities for shared infrastructure projects or use it to finance major infrastructure expenditures.

The City of Prince Rupert has not as of yet, identified how they plan to make use of the federal cash injection.

Port Edward is also set to get some federal cash, with 75,448 dollars heading to the District from this announcement.

Around the Northwest and over to Haida Gwaii, the federal deposit looks as follows:

Terrace -- $537,032
Kitimat -- $404,108
Kitimat-Stikine -- $732,094
Smithers -- $280,465
Bulkley-Nechako -- $880,879
Houston -- $185,255
Hazelton -- $63,889
New Hazelton -- $80,594
Burns Lake -- $138,092
Telkwa -- $109,449
Stewart -- $73,339

Masset  $89,791
Queen Charlotte -- $92,322

More background on the Fund and the Federal Government's redistribution to all communities across the province can be found here.

More notes related to Civic finances can be found on our archive page here.