A funding boost for transit in both Amherstburg and LaSalle.
The provincial government announced a $398,778 investment from the 2023-24 Gas Tax program for the municipalities on Monday.
The funding can be used to expand service hours, increase routes, purchase new vehicles, and improve accessibility to increase transit ridership.
LaSalle is receiving $285,098 while Amherstburg is getting $113,680.
The amounts are consistent with previous years under the Gas Tax program.
The province is investing almost $380 million provincewide to help 102 municipalities improve local transit.
This year's Gas Tax program includes a one-time additional $3 million to ensure municipalities can continue to support and grow their transit systems.
Essex MPP Anthony Leardi says they know that municipal transit systems are essential to the success of local communities, connecting people and families to jobs, housing and wherever they need to go.
He says being able to offer more choice to people in being able to get them around is important to the government, especially in some of the more rural municipalities.
"We want to try to encourage local municipalities to be creative in the delivery of transportation networks. We don't tell the municipalities what they have to do with the money, other than to provide some form of public transportation that delivers an alternative form of transportation. We encourage municipalities to be creative with it," Leardi said.
The Windsor-Essex region is growing, as many large investments over the past few years are attracting people along with them, and Leardi says that's especially true for LaSalle which may be one of the fastest growing municipalities in Ontario.
"We want to make sure the Town of LaSalle has some funding to explore some creative options to get some form of public transportation up and running. These things take a long time to develop, they're not developed overnight, so we are happy to be onside with LaSalle in seeking some creative solutions to transportation networks."
Leardi believes investing in public transit will be a benefit in the near future, and in the long term as well.
He's already had discussions with both LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche and Amherstberg Mayor Michael Prue on their plans to enhance public transportation networks with the funding.
"Figuring out what responds best to the citizens in their municipality. Maybe they'll want to change that from year to year, or make minor adjustments or even major adjustments. I think that it's a good idea for them to continue experimenting with those particular transportation networks to see if they do properly respond to the citizens in their town," Leardi said.
Funding for the Gas Tax program is set by the number of litres of gasoline sold in the province during the previous fiscal year.
The funding allocations through the Municipal Gas Tax are calculated based on total transit ridership, which accounts for 70 per cent of funding, and population, which accounts for 30 per cent of funding, both of which fluctuate from year to year.