Members of Peterborough County Council received an update on funding from the province during last week’s meeting.
MPP Dave Smith gave a delegation at County Council on Nov. 6, providing an update on the funding allocations through provincial funds for the five municipalities in his riding.
This update from Smith came to council as municipalities gear up to finalize their budgets for next year.
Smith started by telling councilors that the province would not allow him to share numbers for the other municipalities within the County of Peterborough outside of his riding but that MPP Laurie Scott and MPP David Piccini would be providing them with updates at a later date.
Smith explained that in terms of funding provided to municipalities by the Province, there are a few different fund programs that are used to deliver these monies which are to be used for specific streams of services within municipalities.
He told council that the Ontario Community Investment Fund (OCIF) is based around what municipality’s asset management plans are and is predominantly funding intended for water, wastewater and roads. So, those townships that don’t have water or wastewater facilities will receive a little bit less than those townships that do.
The breakdown of funding for OCIF was presented as follows:
Douro Dummer: $137 225.
Havelock-Belmont-Methuen: $160 000
North Kawartha: $100,000.
Selwyn: $258, 743
Trent Lakes: $101 888
Peterborough County: $1,145,482
Smith told council that some of these municipalities saw a decrease in funding from OCIF over last year’s numbers.
He said, “What that means is that you did such a really good job of looking after your infrastructure last year that you don’t need quite as much this year in comparison to some of the other municipalities.”
He went on to explain that the province has a set amount of money within this fund to be split between all municipalities within the province and some were in more need of this infrastructure funding than others.
“We saw in some of the northern and more remote communities there were significant challenges, especially in the remote areas where they rely predominantly on the Winter Roads Network, the ice roads. The ice roads were not as operational last year as they had been in previous years and we’re not projecting them to be open as long again this year. So those communities do need to have some additional funding for some of their infrastructure because of that.”
The next funding source Smith spoke to was the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF), which he said saw an increase for each municipality.
The OMPF stream is the general assistance grant for municipalities.
Smith explained the funding allocations as:
Douro Dummer: $614,000 which is up $28,000 over last year.
Havelock-Belmont-Methuen: $1,411 900, which is an increase of about $172 000.
North Kawartha: $1, 234 500 which is up $152 000 over 2024.
Selwyn Township: $1,185 800.
Trent Lakes: $1,555,400 which is an additional $145, 000 over last year
Peterborough County: $358, 000 which is up about $25 000.
“OMPF is for next year, it is not money that’s coming in for the current fiscal year. So we will help you with your budget deliberations because you know what you’re getting from the province then and there are a number of pressing issues for all of you on the finance side.”
Deputy Warden Sherry Senis asked Smith what the province is going to do about the Ontario Province Police (OPP) increase for municipalities. She stated that it was unacceptable that some municipalities are facing a 20 per cent increase that will be placed on the taxpayers.
Smith explained that this increase in mainly due to the increase in labour cost for the OPP.
Many of the local municipalities are facing increases anywhere from 14 to 20 per cent. However in some areas of the province they are seeing 35 to 40 per cent increases for their policing costs.
Smith told County council, “This came as a surprise to us (the province), as well. The OPP operations do not receive any direction from the province. They operate independently. It would be inappropriate for an elected official to step in or make suggestions on how police should operate. So, we weren’t made aware of what that increase was going to be. They have a formula they use to figure out how much it’s going to cost. Because we were hit basically at the same time as the municipalities were, we have gone back to look at what can we do to reduce that impact on everyone. I can’t say that the increase is going to be zero per cent. I don’t think that would be appropriate, but we are looking at different avenues that we can help with those municipalities. There will be more coming from the Minister of the Solicitor General’s Office very shortly. We know the timelines for all of you, your budget has to be completed early in December. So expect to hear something in the next couple of weeks from the Solicitor General’s Office to offset some of those costs.”
More information on municipal budgets can be found through individual municipality’s council meeting agendas online.
