Alberta’s Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors was in Brazeau County last week for an upgrading rural infrastructure announcement.
According to a press release, more than $236 million dollars in grants will support 125 local transportation and water infrastructure projects in small and rural communities across the province.
Devin Dreeshen is pleased to announce that Alberta’s government has approved $66 million dollars in additional Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program (STIP) grants which will support 86 different road, bridge, and community airport projects all across the province. Dreeshen knows this funding is critical to ensure Alberta communities have safe and efficient local infrastructure to help attract investment and also to improve travel for residents. He says “In Budget ’24, we actually increased funding for the Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program, or lovingly known as STIP, and this program supports municipalities in improving critical local infrastructure. For STIP we actually allocated $111 million dollars in funding over three years, which is an $18 million dollar increase from the previous budget. Now, this dedicated funding helps smaller and rural municipalities maintain and improve local roads, bridges, and other key infrastructure.”
Dreeshen discusses one of the projects which will receive funding here in his Innisfail-Sylvan Lake constituency. He says “Now in other parts of the province we are providing over $900,000 to a grant to Red Deer County for a runway paving project at the Big Bend Airport, near Innisfail.”
Approved projects under the Alberta Municipal Water/Wastewater Partnership also include a $2.5 million dollar grant to the Town of Didsbury for a new reservoir to address current capacity and firefighting deficiencies with the Town’s existing system.