There are concerns that communities will lose out on much-needed funding as the result of changes made to municipal operating grants.

The Opposition says those changes could mean some municipalities could lose up to $800,000 in essential funding.

Liberal MHA and former Corner Brook Mayor Jim Parsons told VOCM Open Line with Brian Callahan that it used to be a three-year program that was predictable, allowing municipalities to plan.

Now, the per capita funding model has been changed, meaning some municipalities have been dropped from the program altogether.

“So, this was a real shocker the other day, that of the 22…15 were kicked out of the program (and) lumped into the other municipal infrastructure program, municipal capital works, which is on a project by project funding basis, and they put a bit more money in that program, but they’ve left the other 7/11 we call them. It’s now a four-year program not three.”

Infrastructure Minister Barry Petten says the grant was previously administered without a formula, saying he inherited a mess that he did not want his name attached to in any future AG reports.

Petten says the multi-year capital works program was designed for seven of the largest municipalities in the province.

“It ballooned to 22, and there was no parameters, there was no rhyme nor reason, there was no mechanism how one got more than the other. It was just whatever the government or the minister of the day chose, and I was not going to be that minister.”