A $100 million investment in infrastructure is headed to rural Northern Ontario.
Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Glen Murray announced the plan to create a $100 million fund to help small, rural Northern communities build and maintain roads, bridges and other infrastructure during Day 2 of the Northern Ontario Municipal Association’s annual general meeting at the Victoria Inn Friday.
The city of Thunder Bay doesn’t qualify for the fund, surrounding communities like Neebing, Shuniah and Ignace will.
The consultation began Friday morning with regional leaders and Murray will continue the consultation process with Minister of Rural Affairs Jeff Leal.
“That money will be available Oct. 1 and we will be asking northern municipal leaders and community leaders to help us write the rules on how that money will be spend and to write the rules on a more permanent program,” Murray said.
The minister confirmed this is new money and not taking out of existing funds.
And while most projects won’t get started until next year, Murray said they are also looking at planning as well as projects.
He’s asking communities to look at the life cycle of their infrastructure like water and sewer, roads and bridges.
“How much time is there?” he said. “When do we need to make the investments to prevent things from deteriorating?”
The emphasis on planning will give the communities more discretion on meeting their critical needs, Murray said.
Also at the NOMA meeting Friday afternoon, nine provincial ministers lined up in the front of the room and took questions from various regional stakeholders from mayors and reeves to high school students.
The participating ministers were:
- Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle
- Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Linda Jeffrey
- Minister of Natural Resources David Oriazetti
- Minister of Aboriginal Affairs David Zimmer
- Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Glen Murray
- Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Brad Duguid
- Minister of Labour Yasir Naqvi
- Minister of Research and Innovation Reza Moridi
- Minister for Seniors Mario Sergio
The Ring of Fire, specifically infrastructure and energy needs for the project, were addressed.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Harvey Yesno wanted to know how the province was planning to address Aboriginal treaty rights in infrastructure development planning in the remote North.
Oriazetti said Ontario recognizes the unique challenges of remote First Nation communities and one of the most important aspects of the land use planning for First Nations is certainty.
“They want protection for their traditional lands, ceremonial sites, burial sites, whatever might be and mining companies want that certainty as well,’ he said, adding they’ve committed more than $4 million for the process.
Gravelle also said none of the mining projects will go forward without the support of the First Nations most affected by the developments.”
