Peggy Revell
Municipalities across the district took full advantage of the economic stimulus funding that flowed in 2009, but many local leaders are predicting 2010 will be a drier year.
“The cupboards are going to be bare [this] year, there’s no doubt about it,” said Alberton Reeve Mike Hammond, who foresees some downloading to municipalities in the coming months.
Alberton took advantage of every grant they could get a hold of in 2009, Reeve Hammond noted, so the township has gotten in “pretty good shape” and “should be able to handle any real bad downturn.”
These projects included a new fire hall, 4.5 km of hard surface roads, and playground equipment, as well funds to work on the skating rink’s shack (although time constraints means this will be done in 2010).
“We got some road improvements on Ducharme Road, culverts, which should do the municipality good for the next 65 years,” Reeve Hammond said.
“We’ve done a lot of stuff that will benefit the municipality in years to come,” he added.
“We get these culverts put aside—that’s $180,000 that are good now for 65 years, which if we had to replace five years from now, we wouldn’t have the money,” the reeve explained.
“Thanks to the government, even if we have to pay back a little back at a time, it won’t hurt us.”
In La Vallee, 2009 meant some “major construction,” noted Reeve Emily Watson, including the replacement of the Black Bridge on La Vallee Road South, which cost more than $1 million, and repairs to Cain and Pyne Road—all of which happened thanks to government funding.
But while the township accessed what funding it could to take care of their most pressing problems, Reeve Watson doubts they will be seeing any government grants for some time to come.
La Vallee also received notification that Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding is being reduced in 2010.
“That’s going to present some challenges to our municipality,” she admitted. “We don’t have a huge industrial tax base or anything like that—it’s farm land and residential—so anything that’s reduced from the government then has to come from the taxpayer through land taxes.
“So that’s going to be a challenge.”
As well, places like the Northwestern Health Unit have received a larger portion of their funding from the province but have kept their levy to municipalities at the same level, Reeve Watson noted.
“It’s a challenge to try and balance all of this stuff,” she remarked. “And while through DSSAB the ‘Ontario Works’ budget is going to be reduced, they’re starting to plan for their budget for 2010 and looking at additional money from the municipalities to cover social housing.
“We just can’t seem to get ahead so it’s quite challenging.”
The Rainy River District Municipal Association will hold its annual general meeting at the end of January and these sort of challenges will be discussed, said Reeve Watson, who currently is president of the organization.
“By that time, by the end of January, all of this OMPF funding will be in place so there’s really not a lot of impact that we’re going to be able to have,” she explained.
“But we have been talking through our Association of Municipalities of Ontario and Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association representatives to carry our concerns.”
Despite “rumblings” about funding cuts, Emo Mayor Ed Carlson thinks senior government will come through with financing in the end.
“I’m optimistic and I’m not going to start worrying about that until [it happens] because it very well may not be anything to worry about,” he reasoned. “That’s the position we’re taking.
“We choose to see it as something that’s a necessary thing that we go through all the time,” Mayor Carlson said. “It’s never a guaranteed thing, but it’s always been there and I’m expecting it to be there this year again.
“If it doesn’t, yes, indeed, there will be challenges for us, for sure, and we’ll have to deal with them as they come,” he added.
“You can sit and worry about stuff like that, but in the end it doesn’t help you any,” he argued. “I’d rather deal with positives that are actually there, for sure.”
For Emo, 2009 was a “very, very busy year,” said Mayor Carlson, who also extended thanks to the “many, many people of the community and surrounding area” whose volunteer work over the past year helped make a difference.
Projects included the completion of some major road construction, the building of the abattoir (which should be functioning in the “not too distant future”), the splash park (which is close to completion), as well as water and sewage installation through the village’s industrial park area.
With the assistance of grant money given to La Vallee, work also has been done to the shared Emo-La Vallee Community Centre, Mayor Carlson noted, including energy cost-saving initiatives and looking into upgrades to the handicapped washrooms.
“One of the challenges that we had was we need to upgrade our water and sewer, particularly our water treatment plant,” the mayor said about what work still needs to be done in Emo.
“So we’re trying to work with the provincial [and] federal government on that respect.
“That’s a challenge that will be carried over into 2010 that, hopefully, we can get all the funding in place and get that up and operating more efficiently.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Carlson said he’s “quite optimistic” about the upcoming year.
“I know things are probably going to be a little bit tighter on both the federal and provincial side, [but] I know there’s federal dollars still out there, probably due to the fact that some people weren’t shovel-ready,” he explained.
“So that money is rolled back and might be available to others that are shovel-ready—and our water treatment plant is shovel-ready to go, so hopefully we can dip into some of that a little bit more and capitalize on our ability to jump ahead with that process.”
Over in Chapple, improvements to recreational facilities were the big projects in 2009.
“We replaced an old skating rink and it’s up and running, providing an outlet for our young people in town,” said Reeve Peter Van Heyst.
“And the ball diamond has been completed, and it’s something to keep the community together.
“As far as all municipal works, we were kind of disappointed not getting the funding we needed to replace a bridge, but maybe it will come in this coming year,” Reeve Van Heyst added.
As usual, the challenge for the upcoming year is to stay within budget, he noted.
“I guess we’re disappointed [with] some of the funding cuts that the province put in place,” the reeve admitted. “We’ve been cut back over $60,000 in the one-time funding.”
Still, Reeve Van Heyst wanted to wish Chapple’s citizens all the best for the coming year.
“And we hope that the local industry, the strandboard mill, can keep operating and supply employment for our citizens in the district,” he said.
“Things went pretty well,” Morley Reeve Gary Gamsby said of the past year.
“If I remember correctly, no tax increase, so that’s always good.”
About the only “big” project this past year was finishing up a municipal drain, he noted, adding that this year the plan is to continue working as a region to “bring some life back into the forestry industry and the economy of Northwestern Ontario.”
“But looking ahead, it’s going to be hard because the province has changed the funding formula for municipalities and some municipalities are going to get hit quite hard and I think we’re one of them,” Reeve Gamsby warned.
“So I’m concerned about that. It will probably mean a tax increase or a reduction of services, or a combination of both.”
Reeve Gamsby placed the cuts for Morley at roughly $31,000—representing about 12 percent of the township’s annual budget.
“The only goal is to try to mitigate the effect of the funding reduction,” he stressed about the upcoming year.
“We have to keep working away at trying to improve the economy and get our fair share of what’s out there,” the reeve added. “And we’ll have to be patient with the provincial government because they’re going to have to deal with the huge deficit and they’re probably going to be starting with that pretty quickly, and that’s going to affect us all.
“So that’s something we have to watch for,” Reeve Gamsby said.
