ESTEVAN - Estevan MLA Lori Carr says there is a lot of good in the Estevan constituency in this year's provincial budget.
In addition to the $2.5 million for a new Estevan Regional Nursing Home, and the green light to begin fundraising for an MRI scanner at St. Joseph's Hospital in Estevan, the provincial budget released Wednesday also includes money for Highway 18 west of Estevan.
Carr, who is also the minister of Highways and Infrastructure for the Saskatchewan Party, said there is $1.9 million for planning and the crushing of gravel for the route. She said paving for this project would be completed in the summer of 2025. The length is approximately 22 kilometers and stretches from Estevan to Outram.
Once this is completed, she said Highway 18 from the Manitoba border to the junction with Highway 6 will have been resurfaced in recent years.
Outside of the constituency, there will also be further twinning work for Highways 39 and 6 around Milestone and Corinne.
"We also know how convoluted that gets, and the highways will be all twinned in that [Milestone] area for safety. And then once that's done, then there will be some additional twinning done in the Weyburn area, and some realigning of some intersections that are at angles. And then that project will be completely done."
Also in the budget, Carr noted there is a three per cent increase in operating dollars for those groups that are funded by the government of Saskatchewan. The majority of these groups flow through the Ministry of Social Services budget.
Municipal revenue sharing is up over 14 per cent from last year. Carr said the City of Estevan will receive $2,549,426, which she said represents approximately 10 per cent of their annual operating budget. Revenue sharing is a formula based on provincial sales tax dollars that have been collected by the provincial government, which she said is stable and predictable.
All municipalities receive the municipal revenue sharing money.
