Bridges, broadband, funding focuses for new Clearwater County Reeve

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“It’s exciting and a new challenge for sure,” says Duncan.

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“It’s more responsibility and more public speaking, which none of us are all that comfortable with, but nobody throws tomatoes out here, so we’re okay,” he joked.

Duncan says despite a change in Reeve for Clearwater County, council’s focus will remain the same.

“We’re trying to strengthen our economic development here and move towards a better broadband or internet connection for our residents out here as well,” states Duncan. “So that’s two of our main focuses as well as the day to day services we provide to all the county with our roads and agricultural services that we do out here.”

Another focus for Clearwater County according to Duncan is the amount of bridge work that needs to be done.

“We have a lot of bridges and a lot of them are getting pretty old and that’s a program where the funding for it has been discontinued by the province,” laments Duncan. “So we’re having to move forward with that on our own and same with water and wastewater infrastructure, that’s a program that used to be at least partially funded through grants but is not anymore. So we’re looking for ways and trying to find ways to move through that to keep our systems upgraded in our hamlets and where we provide those services.”

Provincial funding through the current Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) is another area of concern adds Duncan, as that program is slated to end in 2021.

“That will be one of our focuses, is to find out if there’s going to be an extension to that program or a different program or if it’s going to stop completely,” he exclaims. “Then yes, we’ll have to adjust our programs and services to that drop in income for us. We’re doing three and four year budgets and it would be great to know what kind of funding we’re getting from the province over that three and four years as well to help us plan a little bit more.”

Overall however, Duncan feels Clearwater County is in a strong financial position moving forward.

“Not only this council but in previous councils we’ve been good managers and stewards of our financial resources and we’ve had some excellent staff to help us get through those projects,” says Duncan. “We’re in good shape, there’s lots we want to do to help our residents or to improve and of course those things cost money, so we’ll have to pick and choose the projects we can do and can’t do or at what level we’re going to do them.”