The Foothills MD council is working hard to whittle down its 2016 budget.

Reeve Larry Spilak says they're trying to keep it in the three to three-and-a-half percent range.

"We recognize the hardships that are out there in 2016, so we're battling to get it down as low as possible," he says. "What it amounts to is how much paving we decide to do in 2016 as far as how much higher than three percent we will be."

He says they also have to wait and hear from the provincial government and the spring budget as to what they can expect in the way of Municipal Sustainability Initiative, or MSI funding

So far he's heard it won't be affected.

"We don't know where the Province is going to go as far as funding for these types of things, the MSI funds could go up and if they do that's give us some extra money for paving," Spilak says. "Based on everything we've seen so far they have not held back on funding anything in municipalities, so it's a good thing for municipalities as far as getting the dollars, I'm not sure where it's all coming from but we're certainly getting them here."

He says when the MD built the Aldersyde field house and Heritage Heights rink, roads were in good shape so they took some of that funding and used it for those facilities.

Now that they're up and running some of that money can go back into road work.