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Province announces funding for local infrastructure projects

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The province will provide more than $6 million for projects in Nipissing district through its share of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.

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The funding will be used to support six projects as part of the program’s rural and northern stream and includes approximately $1.7 million to four-lane McKeown Avenue in North Bay; $1.6 million to reconstruct Dorion Hill Road in Mattawa; $880,000 to reconstruct Alderdale Road in Chisholm Township; $809,000 to rehabilitate Yelleck Road; $625,000 to replace the Murphy Road Bridge in Mattawan Township; and $490,000 to rehabilitate Maple Hill Road in Powassan.

Nipissing Progressive Conservative MPP and Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli announced the funding commitment Wednesday at his office in downtown North Bay, alongside his municipal counterparts and the chief of Nipissing First Nation.

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Fedeli said the projects amount to $20 million worth of local infrastructure and are now waiting for approval from the federal government.

“I think the fact that there is a federal election in October is very critical,” he said.

“The feds will want to make announcements before the writ drops, so I think the timing is important. The intake opened up in March, here we are early in July ready to go, so I think the timing all adds up.”

The costs for each project will be shared between the federal and provincial governments, as well as the funding recipients.

Fedeli said each project was reviewed and prioritized based on federal eligibility requirements and provincial assessment criteria.

The federal government also will provide a large portion of the funding relative to its funding partners.

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Ontario’s share will be up to 33.33 per cent or about $10.2 billion spread across the program’s four streams: rural and northern; public transit; green; and community, culture and recreation.

Fedeli said the streams for community, culture and recreation, as well as green — which will include water, waste water, and storm water projects — are set to open.

Mayor Al McDonald said the McKeown Avenue area, while “booming,” is constrained in that the street narrows from four lanes down to two.

“So it was identified by senior staff as one of the priorities and it fits very well,” McDonald said.

“It’s a wonderful program that the province and the feds have put together and we felt that was the best project to put forward.”

The city’s share of the McKeown Avenue project will be determined once it goes to tender, McDonald added.

“Obviously there are resources to plan and to create the engineering behind it so that it can move forward, but it’s really a council decision at the end of the day,” he said.

“But we’re going to try to plug it in, in the next couple of years.”

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