The president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario says getting the rural message to Queen's Park continues to be a challenge.
Gary McNamara says many of the government officials in Toronto don't understand that small urban and rural municipalities don't have the money to administer things like applications for grants or lobbying government for funding that larger urban centres do.
He adds the needs of small urban and rural municipalities are very different than those of larger centres and he points to the big issue in large urban centres for infrastructure in the form of rapid transit.
The infrastructure debate in small urban and rural municipalities is more likely roads and bridges.
But McNamara says government officials in Toronto don't always understand that bridge or road could be the economic development life line for a community.
Speaking at last week's OSUN conference in Goderich, McNamara noted that repairing a single bridge can cost several million dollars and even raising one-third of that to get matching federal and provincial funding can be a challenge for rural and northern communities.
