Municipal delegates from Chatham-Kent will be seeking an increase in provincial funding when they meet with provincial Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma at next week’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa.
“We will be seeking removal of the $10 million cap on the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF),” said Mayor Darrin Canniff. “Council passed a resolution in March requesting that the province lift the cap which will allow us to receive funding based on the full extent of our needs.”
OCIF is a provincial program that provides small, rural, and northern municipalities with annual funding to be used towards building and repairing roads, bridges, water, and wastewater infrastructure.
Chatham-Kent is one of only three municipalities (the City of Greater Sudbury and the City of Thunder Bay are the others) that have their funding capped.
In addition to infrastructure issues, delegates will be attending sessions concerning agriculture, tourism, renewable energy, health, and the environment.
Mayor Canniff will be joined by councillors Karen Kirkwood-Whyte, Clare Latimer, Carmen McGregor, Doug Sulman, Melissa Harrigan and Brock McGregor.
Interim Chief Administrative Officer Tony Haddad and Gord Quinton, General Manager, and Chief Financial Officer will also attend.
The conference begins Sunday, August 14, and wraps up Wednesday, August 17.
For more information contact:
Darrin Canniff
Mayor
Municipality of Chatham-Kent
519-360-1998 x 3001
Darrin.canniff@chatham-kent.ca
Gord Quinton
General Manager, Finance, Budget, Information Technology & Transformation
Chief Financial Officer / Treasurer
gord.quinton@chatham-kent.ca
Jim Blake
Communications Officer
Municipality of Chatham-Kent
519-360-1998 x 3624
jimbl@chatham-kent.ca
