Chatham-Kent’s number crunchers are getting a head start on planning the 2022 municipal budget.

The province has already announced its Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund allocations for next year, with Chatham-Kent seeing an increase of $332,100.

CK’s Chief Financial Officer, Gord Quinton says it’s a result of the province slowly phasing out allocations to municipalities that no longer qualify for the funding.

“It’s a recognition by the province that rural municipalities such as Chatham-Kent have a higher cost of infrastructure per population,” he said. “This is welcome news as we face a very challenging 2022 municipal budget with high inflation impact.”

Municipalities aren’t allowed to run deficits, so provincial funding helps balance the budget without adding onto property taxes to fill the void.