MARATHON — The head of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association says there’s a lot to like in the federal budget, but wants to make sure highway improvements are among national priorities.
“We recognize that they’re looking at the nation-building aspects and one of the big things for us, obviously, is the highway corridor,” Dumas said, referring to longstanding advocacy to better the Trans-Canada from the Manitoba border throughout the Northwest.
“We’ve identified this as part of our priorities … and we think that the federal government’s identified some infrastructure builds (and) we want to continue to focus on that.”
NOMA’s advocacy is shared by the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities, which advocates for over 110 municipalities in northeastern Ontario, Dumas said.
“If Canada is serious about long-term economic resilience and national prosperity, modernizing and securing the Trans-Canada Highway system through northern Ontario — particularly Highways 11 and 17 — must be treated as a national priority,” said a statement about the federal budget from NOMA.
“Frequent road closures, extreme weather events, and limited redundancy on these vital corridors cost the economy millions of dollars each year by disrupting the movement of goods, people, and essential services.”
While Dumas noted the $78 billion deficit the government plans to run in the first year of the budget, he said other promised infrastructure spending will help northern communities. The budget is still subject to Parliament’s vote, with the minority Liberals needing either some opposition support or abstention to push it through and avoid another election.
The budget earmarks over $50 billion over the next decade in local infrastructure spending — a fund that Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Patty Hajdu said will be “highly flexible.”
Dumas said, for smaller municipalities that have aging facilities — for example, those used for recreation — it could be very welcome investment. Dumas is also the mayor of Marathon, and is eager to build a new multi-purpose facility in his town.
“Most of the facilities are 50 to 60 years old minimum and these need to be looked at and repaired,” he said.
“I always say when I talk to governments, ‘you’re the grandparents and parent, we’re the kid,’” he continued.
“Well, this time the kid has a little bit of money, but we need parents and grandparents to help us out to fix our facilities.”
Dumas said stated commitments to building more homes, particularly more affordable mid-sized units — can greatly help the Northwest’s embattled forestry sector.
“Everybody wants a 3,000-square foot home — that’s not affordable,” he said. “We’ve got lots of land in Ontario and in Canada, we can build a lot of homes for reasonable prices that people can afford.”
“That would definitely drive the forestry sector.”
Dumas said he and NOMA, along with their northeastern Ontario counterparts, will be taking their concerns — including those around highway improvements — to Ottawa at the beginning of December when local representatives get to meet with federal officials.
“That’s a big geographic area of Ontario and it falls under the Canadian mandate for nation building,” he said, adding that the goal is “having a good discussion recognizing how important Northwestern Ontario, northeastern Ontario, the mining and forestry sectors are for Canada and Canada’s GDP.”
