The Wildrose critic for Municipal Affairs wants the NDP Government to ensure long-term funding is in place for municipalities.

Livingstone-MacLeod MLA Pat Stier says this government is like the past one when it comes to MSI, or Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding.

"It was set up by the Government years ago to provide municipalities at that time for what they promised to be sustainable, predictable funding but unfortunately they've never really lived up to how much they've distributed through that fund and now that plan is about to expire," he says.

Stier says municipalities have to have their budgets done by the end of the year and they need an idea of what to expect without waiting for the actual provincial budget release.

"Particularly this year for the MD of Foothills as an example, which is my old home base, they're short on a lot of tax money this year because of the Mazeppa Gas shut down and both municipalities (the Foothills MD and High River) are going to be shy of money this year because suddenly they're going have to be paying carbon tax, so unless the Government come out and makes them exempt, like they should, the taxpayers are going to be on the hook for this," Stier says.

The Wildrose 10/10 MSI plan would allocate 10 per cent of tax revenues generated in Alberta, calculated on a rolling average, to municipalities and ensure that core funding is guaranteed. The Wildrose 10/10 MSI plan would take decisions on this essential funding away from the whims of politicians.

"Our plan has been reviewed by most economists, they agree that it would work quite fine, we looked at all the money that municipalities would get and in fact our plan would provide them with more money than what they're getting right now," he says.

He says he just wants the Government to divulge what they're going to do about this funding but so far his questions have been deflected.