The Government of Ontario is setting a course for building sound municipal infrastructure across the province, so that people live in strong, prosperous and growing communities.

Investment is needed not only to expand municipal infrastructure to meet the growth challenge, but also to renew aging infrastructure to create the kinds of communities we want for ourselves and our children.

More than half of Ontario’s infrastructure is publicly owned. Municipalities are responsible for most of the urban and rural infrastructure essential for daily life:

• Safe drinking water
• Environmentally responsible sewage and waste disposal
• Health-promoting parks and recreational facilities
• Better local roads, bridges and transit.

In the 2005 Ontario budget, the government announced a $30 billion, five-year infrastructure investment plan called ReNew Ontario. Investments under ReNew Ontario are being made in areas that Ontarians have stated are their priorities: healthcare, education, and economic prosperity. Additional areas include: transit and transportation, affordable housing, justice, clean water infrastructure and rural communities.

• Under ReNew Ontario, we are providing funding for over 100 major hospital projects across the province to modernize, expand and upgrade healthcare facilities.
   
• To date, we’ve funded about 6,800 high priority renewal projects at schools.
   
• We are creating opportunity for young people by supporting innovation and boosting the number of graduate student spaces in Ontario by 55 per cent from 2002-03 levels. In September 2006, we announced we will increase the number of spaces by 12,000 over two years, rising to 14,000 by 2009-10.
   
• We are providing $313 million in the third year of our gas tax program to support municipalities in expanding and improving public transit services.
   
• In August 2005, we announced the Northern Ontario Highways Strategy — a $1.8 billion, five-year plan for highway improvement and expansion in Northern Ontario.
   
• We are investing $3.4 billion through the Southern Ontario Highways Program to support key transportation and trade corridors in southern Ontario, adding 130 kilometres of highway and 64 bridges, and repairing 1600 kilometres of highways and 200 bridges.
   
• We are moving forward with our partners on our $300 million investment in the Windsor Gateway and the $323 million investment in the Niagara and Sarnia border crossings.
   
• We remain committed to the revitalization of the Toronto Waterfront. Work has begun on a new mixed-use community on the provincially owned West Don Lands. In March 2006, the official West Don Lands construction groundbreaking took place and since that that time tenants have been relocated, buildings demolished and in June 2007 we saw the official groundbreaking for construction of the Flood Protection Landform and Don River Park.
   
• Rural communities are a priority. Investments in rural infrastructure, such as roads and water, continue through the COMRIF program. To date, the province has committed $289 million towards 280 projects in municipalities as part of the COMRIF program.

Municipal Infrastructure Initiatives