The MPP for Chatham-Kent Leamington is pointing to strong competition and an influx of applications as two reasons a proposed new arena for Chatham did not secure provincial funding.
Rick Nicholls told Blackburn News on Wednesday the provincial government received more than 1,100 applications from across Ontario for community, culture, and recreation funding worth more than $10 billion -- but there was only $267 million available in provincial funds.
"As with most grant applications, not all get approved," said Nicholls. "The requests from Community, Culture and Recreation were astonishing."
News the new twin pad arena was left out of the funding by upper levels of government came on Monday. The municipality applied for $36.65 million late last year to go towards a 2,200 seat, $60 million arena. However, the province said it wasn't passed onto the federal government for review and approval.
The province told the municipality it was only reviewing projects based on community need, community support, lack of similar services accessible nearby, operational and financial capacity, value for money, asset management planning, whether projects were open to the public and efficiencies through joint projects.
It's unclear what the municipality will do with the $18.5 million that was previously set aside for the arena.
