Photo by Jason Teakle, Brant News
County of Brant Mayor Ron Eddy, left, Brantford Mayor Chris Friel, Ontario Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Bob Chiarelli and Brant MPP Dave Levac tour the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre.
Jason Teakle
BRANT NEWS
The Ontario government is offering up $51 million to help municipalities tackle important infrastructure projects and upgrades.
The provincial government is now accepting applications from municipalities for a share of the funds, Ontario Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Bob Chiarelli said during an announcement in Brantford on Thursday.
“The priority for this funding is for health and safety related infrastructure,” Chiarelli said. “That includes bridges in need of repair, sewer and water projects, facilities and roads.”
Chiarelli made the announcement alongside Brantford Mayor Chris Friel, County of Brant Mayor Ron Eddy, Brant MPP Dave Levac and other municipal officials prior to a tour of the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre.
“The funding is open for anyone to apply, but is of more interest to small and medium-sized municipalities,” Chiarelli said.
The available money is geared toward smaller jurisdictions, with a $2 million limit for each project.
Chiarelli said the funds will help improve the quality of life of Ontario families.
“Every single dollar invested in infrastructure is an investment in quality of life,” Chiarelli said. “Since the recession hit, infrastructure has been a lifeline for Ontario families.”
Chiarelli said the $51 million fund is just “a downpayment” and that the Ontario government expects to add more money to its pot of infrastructure funding in the near future.
“Our government has made unprecedented investments in infrastructure across the province,” Chiarelli said. “We are listening to our municipal partners and taking significant action to invest in their most critical infrastructure projects while assisting them with infrastructure planning over the long-term.”
Chiarelli said the County of Brant will receive about $33,000 to help the predominantly rural municipality design and implement an asset management plan to prioritize its infrastructure needs.
“This will help us know the exact costs, establish priorities and plan to look after those priorities,” Eddy said. “We have been doing bridge repairs every year on former provincial highways since they were turned over to us (in the 1990s).”
Brantford currently has an asset management plan in place.
“As a larger municipality, we know the likelihood of us getting a kick at this (funding) is not great,” Friel said. “But as our neighbours get stronger, our whole area benefits.”
Levac said the funding allocation will save the province money down the road.
“If we don’t change the way we’re doing our infrastructure, we would be back in the same place we started in 20 years,” Levac said. “We are going to save billions in the long-run.”
“Every single dollar invested in infrastructure is an investment in quality of life”
(And each such dollar, taken from taxpayers, is a subtraction in their quality of life.)
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This is something I don’t quite understand.
Municipalities (e.g. cities, counties) collect property taxes, business taxes, development fees and other fees to pay for road, bridge, park, etc. upkeep and maintenance.
Consumers pay water and sewer fees to cover water and sewage treatment plant and distribution system maintenance.
Consumers pay electricity bills to help cover power distribution system maintenance in communties.
Shouldn’t the infrastructure in communities be kept up with those taxes, fees and rates?
How come the cities and counties now have to get money from the province?
And, if the province pays, won’t that just mean taxpayers will pay anyway in another way?
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I am coming to believe that such transfers are a poison in our system of government. It divorces those who use the resources from those who pay for it — it makes people irresponsible. It encourages people to believe that there are infinite magic sources of funds, from whom wealth can be transferred if only we suck up to other levels of government — it makes people ignorant.
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I noticed I got a thumbs down to my comment.
Do people believe we don’t pay taxes, fees and rates to the city government for it to use those taxes, fees and rates to maintain our infrastructure like roads, bidges, parks, water and sewage treatment facilities, distribution lines, electricity lines, etc.?
What do they think those taxes, fees and rates are used for?
And, if the City has to get money from the province, do people not believe that money is coming from their taxes in another way? Do people not believe they are paying for it with taxes anyway if the money comes from the province?
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The Cities are crying the blues and now want our tax money from the provinces and the federal government to pay for infrastructure the cities did not maintain.
How come the cities don’t collect enough taxes, fees and rates to pay for the upkeep and maintenance of their infrastructure?
I were, for example, to pay a total $10,000 per year in taxes and let’s say $1,000 went to the City, $3,000 went to the province and $6,000 went to the federal government but the City needed $2,000 from me to maintain infrastructure, wouldn’t it be better for me to pay more to the City and less to the provincial and federal governments if they are simply going to give tax money back to the City anyway?
Wouldn’t that allow the City to maintain its infrastructure and save other governments the money and bureaucracy to organize and make transfer payments back to the City?
And wouldn’t it be wise to establish laws to make sure municipalities budget and pay to maintain their infrastructure before being able to spend money on anything else?
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