ATIKOKAN – Mayor Rob Ferguson, chief administrative officer Jason Young and Coun. Liz Shine are back from what the mayor terms a “very successful” ROMA conference.
ROMA, the Rural Ontario Municipal Association, held its annual conference earlier this week in Toronto with Atikokan among many participating municipalities from across the province.
The Ontario government used the event to make announcements in infrastructure and other funding programs to support municipalities.
Among them was a new Rural Economic Development Strategy with $10 million in annual funding for a new Rural Ontario Development Program to support economic growth, workforce capacity and business development.
That’s more than the rural development strategy offered before, and Ferguson noted that the province has “broadened the scope of what you can apply for.”
“There are going to be municipalities that definitely benefit from (the program’s expansion), but whether we’re going to be able to find a way to make our projects fit into the program is another thing,” he said.
The province also announced that it is opening applications for $175 million in funding for water and wastewater infrastructure projects to support the development of new housing.
Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma also announced that the province has completed evaluating applications for funding from the $400-million “housing-enabling” fund and has approved 58 successful projects across Ontario.
A government news release said the projects “will help enable up to 160,000 new homes and ensure these growing communities are connected to reliable roadways.” The release said the successful applicants will be announced soon.
Speaking to Newswatch after the conference, Ferguson said the infrastructure funding programs “all come with caveats, but they are interesting."
“The message that we got is they are really interested in working with the North, and it sounded good for us and I think municipalities in Northwestern Ontario should be able to access some funding.”
Ferguson said the Atikokan team met with Health Minister Sylvia Jones “on some health-care issues” and Hydro One “regarding our opportunities with the Waasigan power line and a few other projects that are going on.”
The $1.2-billion Waasigan Transmission Line will run from Shuniah to Atikokan and then to Dryden. A ceremonial groundbreaking for the first phase of construction, to Atikokan, took place in November at Hydro One’s Lakehead Transmission Station in Shuniah.
“It’s always good to get some face time with the ministers,” Ferguson said of the conference. “So all in all it was very successful.”
