It has been announced that additional funding will be making its way towards the improvement of rural roads through the Rural Integrated Roads for Growth (RIRG) program.
The program is a result of a partnership between the provincial government and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) and provides financial support to RMs with the cost of constructing and upgrading rural infrastructure.
Steve Shaheen, Senior Communications Consultant with the Ministry of Highways provides further details on the funding.
"This is phase four which will include 56 road projects valued at a cost of $43.2 million dollars with $15.2 million dollars in this funding."
Shaheen provides details on which local RMs will be the recipients of funding.
"The best I can tell there are four in the south west area. This includes the RMs of Frontier, Monnett, Snipe Lake, and Newcombe."
Breaking down the financials, Frontier will receive $31,800, Monnett and Snipe Lake will each receive $500,000 and Newcombe will receive $400,583.
Shaheen adds that the RIRG program was initially administered under the program named the Municipal Roads for Economy and that in partnership with SARM it is an important program for rural municipalities. The program covers up to 50% of a project cost up to a maximum of $500,000.
According to a government press release, this year's provincial budget will improve more than 1,100 Km of highways, for a total of more than 3,500 Km of highways improved over the past three years. The Government of Saskatchewan has invested about $11.5 billion dollars in highway infrastructure since 2008, improving more than 18,400 Km of Saskatchewan highways.