The City of North Bay is getting over $5.5 million from the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF).
Vic Fedeli, MPP for Nipissing, announced over $6.9 million for several area municipalities with North Bay getting the lion’s share.
Tanya Vrebosch, Deputy Mayor and Budget Chief, says the money is about $3 million more than what the city received last year.
It’s also up about $300,000 from what they expected.
“When the province announced it in their budget, they said they were going to double it,” she says.
Vrebosch says it has to go towards core assets like roads, bridges, water and sewer so staff will look at their options.
“Most likely we’ll take one of our projects that we have already existing in our capital budget, an example could be the Main Street Road Reconstruction, that can happen. We would have to apply and get it approved by the province still,” she says.
The Main Street Paving Stone Replacement project is over $5.7 million.
Vrebosch says they welcome the money, but would also welcome the freedom to put it towards anything within their Asset Management Plan.
“Giving us that flexibility would help us whether it’s with Cassellholme or the Community (Recreation) Centre or any other facility, there’s a lot of other capital expenses we have,” she says. “We welcome the money, we’re definitely going to spend it and if they want to give us more we’ll be happy to accept it.”
Total investment in communities across Nipissing for 2022 include:
City of North Bay – $5,518,653
Municipality of Callander – $204,290
Municipality of East Ferris – $100,000
Municipality of Powassan – $102,030
Town of Mattawa – $202,287
Township of Bonfield – $118,023
Township of Calvin – $100,000
Township of Chisholm – $163,652
Township of Mattawan – $100,000
Township of Nipissing – $202,196
Township of Papineau-Cameron – $100,000
“We know our local communities are facing unique infrastructure needs and challenges, especially as we navigate through the pandemic,” says Fedeli. “When we were told more funding supports were needed, we listened and acted in a meaningful way by providing the largest OCIF increase since the start of the program.”
He says the funding is part of the government’s additional $1 billion investment to help build and repair roads, bridges, water and wastewater infrastructure in small, rural and northern communities.
