November 15, 2004

The Canada-Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund
by David Caplan, Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal

Check against delivery

Mr. Speaker, today I have the honour and pleasure of informing the Legislature and the people of Ontario that our government has signed the Canada-Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund agreement. Small urban and rural communities will be able to apply for COMRIF funding immediately.

COMRIF is a key component of our strategy to upgrade Ontario’s infrastructure. We have fallen behind, and we have much work to do if we’re going to remain competitive with dynamic regional economies in the United States.

This program targets the infrastructure needs of small urban centres and rural municipalities with populations of less than 250,000.

Our federal partner has agreed that we must work closely with the small municipalities for whom COMRIF was designed. Through the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, known as AMO, municipal leaders have been involved in the design of COMRIF from the beginning.

Since announcing this program – here, last May – we have consulted exhaustively with municipal leaders through AMO. These are the priorities they want to see addressed:

• Municipalities want safe drinking water for their residents.
• They want sewage and waste disposal that doesn’t endanger the environment.
• And they want something done about the lamentable condition of local roads and bridges.

These are key COMRIF priorities. Each of the three levels of government will contribute up to $298-million to COMRIF. We have programs to help municipalities raise their share of that money.

To administer the program, we and our partners in Ottawa have set up a Joint Secretariat. The secretariat will consider all applications as rapidly as possible, and will decide, in a timely fashion, which applications will be approved.

Mr. Speaker, we believe that COMRIF sets a new benchmark for co-operation among the three levels of government. It will help restore public confidence in the fairness and efficiency of public administration. And it will bring real, tangible change to communities across the province.

We care about COMRIF because in a healthy, strong Ontario, small communities must be as dynamic as larger ones. They need to retain their young people, offer modern amenities to new businesses, and welcome new citizens. COMRIF will let them identify their own priorities and give them the tools to get the job done.

Thank you.