For Immediate Release
April 16, 2008

BUILIDING RURAL ONTARIO COMMUNITIES

As the MPP for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock, it is always encouraging to see our communities work together in addressing the many challenges constantly facing our rural towns.

Small municipalities throughout Ontario are forced to deal with unique and ongoing pressures of economic development, infrastructure requirements, and funding shortages.  While larger municipalities have received provincial gas tax funding to improve transit, rural Ontario has received relatively little as most of these towns don’t have a public transit system.  For rural Ontario, roads and bridges comprise their public transit.  Without long-term planning and financial security, those same roads and bridges will continue to crumble.

What adds to this is the fact that there is never going to be a simple solution or a ‘standard fit’ in order to address these unique challenges, which vary greatly from town to town.  There is clearly a need for a long-term and flexible plan for our small towns to properly meet their needs.  This is something that we have not seen offered at the Provincial Government level. 

There has been some recent patchwork type infrastructure assistance for roads and bridges in the recent provincial budget.  Cities and towns throughout the province received an allocation of funding based on a ratio combining population and kilometers of roads.  I trust that our municipal representatives will ensure that this money is used for much-needed work on our roads and bridges, as it is intended.

The financial assistance is welcome, but there remains a strong need for long-term commitments from the Province in order for our municipal partners to properly plan ahead in their efforts to address the needs of their communities.

I firmly believe the time is long overdue in terms of how we approach infrastructure and investment for our municipalities.  Too many of the current provincial programs are based on “one-size fits all” and fail to acknowledge the unique needs in our rural areas.  Furthermore, many of these types of projects are often awarded without adequate opportunity for input.  Worse yet, many municipal needs are simply overlooked for this much-needed infrastructure investment. 

Rushed and one-time only announcements, or lottery-style provincial funding force our municipal representatives to increase their reliance on property taxes to help address the needs of their constituents.

I don’t accept the notion that it’s okay for rural Ontario to slowly decline, or that our wealth of talent, work ethic and resources ultimately will have to move to larger cities. 

On the contrary, I believe the health and sustainability of the entire province of Ontario depends on a stable, healthy and thriving rural Ontario.

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