The following statement was issued today by Jack Byrne, Minister of Municipal and Provincial Affairs. It was also read in the House of Assembly:

Today I rise to inform honourable members about a recent meeting senior officials with the Department of Municipal and Provincial Affairs had in Ottawa regarding the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund. Our government is committed to strong policies that will result in a better future for rural Newfoundland and Labrador and this infrastructure program is an extension of that commitment.

I am very pleased to report that this second important negotiating session on this infrastructure program was very successful. Officials from my department were able to secure a draft agreement that all parties can work with and aim to finalize in the coming months.

This meeting was also an excellent opportunity for the province to express some concerns we have in implementing this program. We have significant concerns about whether this program can be delivered to small municipalities in rural Newfoundland and Labrador due to the high environmental and health standards that are required. A major obstacle is the definition of rural. This program is meant to fund infrastructure for populations under 250,000 people. That is what Ottawa considers rural. However, in this province, that would be considered urban as that figure is comparable to the population of the northeast Avalon.

For this reason, we committed to work with our federal counterparts to see if we can find alternative ways of addressing some of the unique needs of our small municipalities where conventional infrastructure may be difficult. Every town cannot afford a lined landfill nor a sewage treatment plant and yet changing environmental standards require we become better stewards of our environment. At this meeting, we agreed that we will work with Infrastructure Canada and Environment Canada to assess the impact of some of our practices on the environment and to try to find new and innovative ways of achieving new technologies in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.

It is important that the federal government clearly articulate the objectives and limitations of the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund to municipalities of this province. My officials had confirmation that the Minister of Infrastructure Canada, the Honourable John Godfrey, will be in the province in June for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference. I will be seeking a meeting with him at that time to further discuss the requirements of this program as well as the gas tax initiative. I will also ask the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Municipalities to attend so that they can provide the up-to-date and accurate information to their members.

It is very important that we start to finalize this agreement as soon as possible. We want to have an agreement in place by mid-fall so that we can get projects approved and ready to construct in 2006. In order to do that, we will need to have accelerated discussions. Based on this meeting, I am confident that we can achieve this goal.


2005 05 12                    2:00 p.m.