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Provincial funding for bridges, roads and sewers announced

By Katie Coleman [1]

BELLEVILLE – The Ontario Government has released the list of funding for municipalities through the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund [2] for 2014 – 2016.

The fund will give 426 municipalities money to improve and repair bridges, roads, water, and waste projects.

The Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund provides a steady source of predictable, long-term funding, according to the Government of Ontario website.

In Belleville, Director of Finance, Brian Cousins says that no specific projects have been chosen to receive funding yet. The city has an idea of where they’d like the money to be spent but it won’t be finalized until the capital budget is drawn up next spring, according to Cousins.

“They just don’t give you money and say thank you very much,” said Cousins, referring to the lengthy application process.

In order to access the funding, municipalities have to submit how the money is going to be spent to the province. In this document, called the contribution agreement, the municipality outlines what projects it hopes to use the funds for. The money can only be used for repair and renewal of roads, bridges, water, and waste water projects. The money cannot be used for projects that involve expansion or growth of the city. The deadline to submit this is Dec. 31, 2014. The funding will then be released to the City of Belleville before March 31, 2015.

The full list of municipalities and amount of funding is available here. [3]