Chatham-Kent's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has a beef with Ontario capping its infrastructure funding.
The province recently announced CK is eligible for $10-million in infrastructure funding in 2024 through the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF), but CK CFO Gord Quinton told CK News Today the province should not be capping the funds because it affects the municipality's long term Asset Management Plan.
"We appreciate the Province confirming the funding. However, the Provincial Government ignoring the inflation impacts on our Asset Management Plan," wrote Quinton in an email. "Chatham-Kent, along with Thunder Bay and Greater Sudbury, hit an artificial $10M cap. All three would get much more under the OCIF formula calculations. Add to that $10M today does much less road work than $10M three years ago due to the high impacts of municipal price inflation (MPI), which has been worse than CPI over that period."
A spokesperson from Chatham-Kent-Leamington MPP Trevor Jones' office said the Ministry of Infrastructure has implemented a funding cap that sets the maximum amount that communities can receive to 2.5 per cent of the annual fund (which is $10 million in 2024) based on recommendations made by a third-party review of OCIF.
However, Jones' Executive Assistant Nammar Cristofari also said Ontario recognizes that the need for infrastructure investment is far from fully met. Cristofari said the province is joining its provincial and territorial partners in calling on the federal government for new and flexible funding of $10 billion a year over 10 years to help communities meet the demand for infrastructure renewal, respond to a changing [economic] climate, and support economic growth.
"OCIF allocations are calculated according to each eligible community’s local infrastructure needs and economic conditions relative to other communities, which change from year to year. This approach helps ensure funding is targeted to communities with more infrastructure and economic need," wrote Cristofari in a reply.
The OCIF funding envelope is a fixed amount per year. For 2024, the province is providing $400 million in OCIF funding to 425 small, rural and northern communities.
Chatham-Kent received $5.3 million in OCIF funds in 2021 and $10 million in 2022 for municipal projects and infrastructure assets such as bridges and roads.
