In advance of the 2025 Budget, Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador (MNL) is asking the Provincial Government to support municipal success.   

MNL’s budget requests are focused on three main areas: support for municipal wastewater monitoring activities, support for volunteer firefighter training, and family care supports for municipal council members.  

Water and wastewater are core municipal responsibilities with regulatory components. Municipalities with wastewater systems subject to the Federal Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations (WSER), must monitor these systems for flow volume and content. MNL is proposing that municipal staff be trained to do monitoring and that the Province establish a wastewater monitoring assistance subsidy fund of $100,000 annually to assist municipalities in their monitoring work.  

Today’s volunteer firefighters respond to medical calls, highway collisions, and support police and ambulance services, in addition to responding to fire calls. Firefighters should not have to rely upon fundraising or already stretched municipal budgets to access the training that they need and are required to have. MNL is asking the Provincial Government to create a volunteer firefighter training fund of $225,000 annually.  

Municipal council members are, for the most part, volunteers who must arrange for childcare or elder care if needed while tending to municipal duties. To encourage a greater diversity of candidates in the 2025 municipal election, MNL is asking the Province for the creation of a childcare and eldercare support fund of $75,000 annually that municipal councillors can access.   

“Municipal leaders and staff are dedicated, community-oriented people doing the best they can with limited resources. For municipalities to truly succeed as vibrant and sustainable communities, they need support. We need to work together to make this possible and we look forward to a Provincial Budget that acknowledges this.” – Councillor Amy Coady, MNL President