Ontario Construction News staff writer
The Province’s infrastructure train rolled into Orillia this week, dropping off close to $4 million to be used on projects across north Simcoe County.
It was the latest stop in a road trip to municipalities and regions across the province, part of Queen’s Park ’s commitment to invest $200 million in infrastructure projects for 424 small, rural, and northern Ontario communities.
Orillia was the largest recipient of the $4 million announced for north Simcoe, pocketing $1.75 million from the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF). The Township of Severn was granted $349,575, and Ramara Township received $223,695.
Municipal politicians and officials appreciate the funding as it adds some degree of certainty that infrastructure projects can proceed.
Orillia officials say $1.3 million of the funding will go towards the reconstruction of Front Street, the city’s largest ongoing infrastructure project which has a total cost of $9.5 million. Work includes below-grade servicing and a new trunk sanitary sewer. It’s expected the rest of the grant will go towards the city’s annual road resurfacing projects.
Other recent infrastructure funding includes $247,539 for the Township of Oro-Medonte, also to be used for road projects.
“OCIF is an excellent example of the stable, predictable infrastructure funding small and rural communities need to help sustain and develop local communities and economies. OCIF’s formula-based funding helps build and maintain Ontario’s network of local roads and bridges and critical water, wastewater and stormwater systems,” said AMO President Jamie McGarvey. “The announcement of 2020 OCIF allocations is timely and much appreciated.”
Some previous funding announcements include $9.3 million for Sudbury, $905,000 for Timmins, and $5.8 million for Parry Sound and Muskoka. Other municipalities that are receiving large amounts of the funding for infrastructure projects include:
- Essex County is getting $6.3 million of the infrastructure money to spend on local projects. The County’s 2020 Road Rehabilitation Program includes more than 30 projects totalling nearly $14 million, including for several bridge and culvert replacement projects
- Norfolk County is receiving $4.557 million, $2 million of which comes from an application for improvements to Waterford’s sewage treatment plant
- The City of Kenora is set to receive $3.1 million from the OCIF funding, The City of Dryden has been allocated $2.36 million from the fund, the Municipality of Sioux Lookout is looking at $1,47 million, and the Municipality of Red Lake, $912,000
- The region of Elgin-Middlesex-London is receiving a total of more than $5.6 million, spread across 10 municipalities to address local community infrastructure needs.
Some quick facts about the investment:
- The Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund provides stable and predictable funding for communities with populations under 100,000, along with all rural and northern communities
- About $200 million in formula-based funding was allocated to small, rural and northern communities for 2019. Municipalities may accumulate their formula funding for up to five years to address larger infrastructure projects
- Ontario also provides funding to communities through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP), a $30-billion, 10-year infrastructure program cost-shared between federal, provincial and municipal governments. Ontario’s share per project will be up to 33.33 per cent, or $10.2 billion spread across four streams: Rural and Northern, Transit Infrastructure, and Community, Culture and Recreation and Green.