The Mayor of Steinbach says he is hopeful the provincial government will agree to pay its 40 percent share of the Investing In Canada program.

Investing In Canada is the former Building Canada Fund. Chris Goertzen says through the old fund, each of the three levels of government would usually contribute one-third of the total cost. But he says municipalities have over 50 percent of the public infrastructure, yet receive only 8 percent of every tax dollar to build that infrastructure.

"Also municipalities cover off a lot of the ongoing operating costs of these facilities whereas the other two levels of government are not in that equation," notes Goertzen.

Goertzen says the federal government has already agreed to fund a minimum of 40 percent of projects through Investing In Canada. He is hoping the provincial government will also put up 40 percent, leaving municipalities left to cover 20 percent.

According to Goertzen, the federal and provincial governments are in the middle of negotiations and have included municipalities in those talks.

"As we move through this there will be consultations involved with municipalities as well as the provincial and federal governments," notes Goertzen. "We look forward to seeing this come to fruition so that we can continue on building infrastructure for our citizens."

Goertzen says depending on the size of the infrastructure, it can be incredibly difficult for a municipality to build, even for the larger ones. For example, he says Steinbach often has larger infrastructure projects because it is supplying regional services.

"So any partnership obviously needs to be as fair as possible and the forty, forty, twenty split would be really the goal that we'd like to see going forward," he says.

Goertzen says not every province will necessarily have the same funding model agreement with the federal government. He notes some provinces have different means than others.

Goertzen says his understanding is that negotiations will wrap by the end of March. He notes as a city they would like this to be finalized as quickly as possible in order that they can move forward on projects included in the funding approved lists.