The Ontario government has announced one-time funding for many of the province’s small and rural municipalities.
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Steve Clark said Wednesday the $200-million investment will be allocated to 405 municipalities across Ontario to help modernize and improve services in the communities.
"Taxpayers need their local government to deliver modern, efficient services that show respect for their hard-earned dollars. This funding will help small and rural municipalities improve how they deliver services and reduce the ongoing costs of providing those services," said Minister Clark.
Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara. (Photo by Peter Langille)
Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara says the municipality is receiving $662,000.
"It's for us to use those dollars prudently, obviously, but make sure that if we can find efficiencies through our operation, those dollars are there to fund that," says McNamara.
He says the town is looking at ways to use the funding.
"Whether it's improving our IT services, improving how we collect all of our data, where we store it and some capital dollars for some infrastructure that will certainly bring efficiencies to our building," says McNamara.
He calls the funding announcement good news for the municipality.
"For us, Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, for example LaSalle or Tecumseh we get nothing," says McNamara. "So to have this come at this time of the year, unexpected revenues after our budget, is great news and we're certainly very happy about that."
McNamara says the County of Essex is receiving $725,000.
"Taxpayers need their local government to deliver modern, efficient services that show respect for their hard-earned dollars. This funding will help small and rural municipalities improve how they deliver services and reduce the ongoing costs of providing those services," said Minister Clark.