Aug 26, 2008 - 01:48 PM
Reka Szekely and Scott Howard
Brock Township is going to cash in on the Province's surplus.
The McGuinty government announced more than $1.1 billion in one-time funding to all Ontario municipalities.
On the heels of the announcement, Brock Mayor Larry O'Connor said the Township will receive $533,575. That figure represents roughly nine per cent of the Township's annual budget.
"This is wonderful news as we struggle to maintain our ageing Infrastructure and balance the cost to local property taxpayers," he said.
"Council is very appreciative of the funding and look forward to developing a plan to make the best use of this new funding."
The money is to be used to improve infrastructure including roads and bridges, public transit and other municipal projects.
The funding could go towards more than $13 million in road repairs cited in a report received by council in February 2007.
The report, prepared by consulting firm Golder and Associates, looked at repairing 66 kilometres - 18 per cent of the total across the township - on 24 different roads. The consultants then identified priority areas over the next five and 10 years.
While many of the roads were in "fairly good condition," according to engineer Andrew Balasundaram, the Township could spend $6.725 million in repairs and upgrades in the from 2007 to 2011 and $6.6 over the following five years.
More than $900,000 of the projects identified in the report were addressed in this year's budget.
Meanwhile, Durham Region will receive $28.4 million in funding.
Regional chairman Roger Anderson said he was very pleased about the announcement.
"What they announced this morning is far better than I anticipated," he said.
Mr. Anderson said judging by the economy, he's not sure the money's going to be there next year, but this year, there are lots of uses for the funding.
"There's lots of bridges and lots of road work that has to be done, that hasn't been done as a result of us paying for other services."
Mr. Anderson also applauded the premier's commitment to completing, by the end of the year, the provincial-municipal fiscal and service review which will look at what services the municipalities are mandated by the Province to provide and how they're funded. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario has long argued that property taxpayers are footing the bill for services the Province should be covering.
"This announcement prior to the fiscal review is exceptionally good news," Mr. Anderson said.
As to what impact the fiscal review will have on the Region's bottom line, he doesn't know if it will mean tax cuts, but hopes it would prevent large tax increases.
"Hopefully that means come 2009, the residents of Durham will see some relief."
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