Ontario Premier Doug Ford chose a lonely road in the Peterborough area near a bridge that has clearly seen better days to announce his government’s plan — and the required dollars to implement it — for rebuilding infrastructure in the province.
A who’s who of the Ford government — including Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Infrastructure Kinga Surma, Minister of the Environment and MPP of Northumberland-Peterborough South David Piccini — along with local politicians, a cabal of media members and curious onlookers gathered in the tiny hamlet of Westwood, located on Centre Line in Asphodel-Norwood Township, on Wednesday morning, Dec. 8, for the announcement.
With a podium set up near the bridge, Ford promised to deliver an additional $1 billion over the next five years to construct and repair roads, bridges, water and wastewater infrastructure in small, rural and northern communities throughout Ontario.
The extra $1 billion over five years is being delivered through the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF) and will bring the government’s total investment to nearly $2 billion over the next five years. The funding will reportedly help 424 smaller Ontario communities with critical infrastructure projects.
Although the concrete bridge in Westwood, built in 1937, has already secured replacement funding to the tune of a reported $1.2 million set aside by Peterborough County, the provincial money promises to get shovels into the ground for infrastructure projects that will support economic recovery, growth and job creation in the province.
“To unleash Ontario’s full economic potential, we must look to our small, rural and northern communities — communities that are the heart and soul of our province. Communities that support small businesses and manufacturing and allow people to live well and thrive. The fact is, these communities have been ignored for too long by previous governments,” said Ford in a prepared speech. “Governments that said the right things but never followed through.”
MPP Piccini said since 2018 the Northumberland-Peterborough South riding has seen a cumulative increase in $9.4 million more through the OCIF for critical infrastructure. In case of Asphodel-Norwood Township, it translates to a more than 208-per cent increase in infrastructure funding for the entire township.
“This is the largest year-over-year increase in Ontario’s history,” said Piccini of the new infrastructure funding.
Asphodel-Norwood Township Mayor Rodger Bonneau was happy to not only have his township used as the site for the announcement, but that his township and other rural townships in Ontario will have a stable source of funding in the years to come to tackle needed infrastructure projects. The provincial infrastructure funding for Asphodel-Norwood will increase from $170,000 per year up to $340,000.
“The funding for this bridge was already in place for us through Peterborough County, but the funding announcement today was for all of Ontario, which made more sense for everyone that they’re going to be able to fix what they have that is broken basically,” said Bonneau.
As for the aging Westwood Bridge, Bonneau said the structure has been shored up to allow for local traffic, but the replacement work is slated to be completed next year. The bridge, he said, has been a source of discontent within the Township, as it has divided the community, with emergency vehicles forced to detour around it because of load restrictions.
“It divided the community. I mean, a school bus couldn’t go across or an ambulance. They had to go eight miles around to get here. It was huge for this little village for sure, but the residents were patient with us and at least we can have one single lane going across and it’s safe,” said Bonneau.
Peterborough County Warden J. Murray Jones was all smiles at the provincial infrastructure funding announcement, saying the new money will go a long way to clearing the infrastructure backlog in the county and elsewhere in Ontario.
“It’s nothing but good news, I can assure you,” said Jones, who also serves as mayor of Douro-Dummer Township. “All the townships in Peterborough County and the county itself, people have no idea how much help we need in order to keep our infrastructure up to par. The county alone is about $80 million shy of just looking after what we got, never mind building anything new. I really do want to thank the province for eventually listening to us. We need their help. We’re all in this together and we can’t do this stuff alone.”
