QUEEN’S PARK – Leaders Ledger – While summer is not officially here, the warm weather is and people in Thunder Bay–Atikokan have been heading to the lakes and their camps for weeks now. I want to acknowledge the great work being done by the local roads boards in our communities. These volunteers and their ratepayers provide their time and money to support a large system of roadways in northern Ontario.
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The work they do does not merely benefit the ratepayers and the campers, but it benefits everyone who uses those roads: hikers, people going fishing and blueberry picking, and the list goes on. That’s why I was very pleased to announce last year that our government would double the funding to local roads boards from $12.5 million to $25 million, a funding ratio of two government dollars for every dollar raised from the ratepayers. This funding increase reversed a decision made in the early 1990s by a previous government.
I thank my roads boards chairs, trustees and ratepayers for the work that they do to benefit so many, for partnering with us, and I’m grateful that our government maintained this investment during these very, very difficult economic times.
It might have seemed fiscally convenient to reverse the decision, but we did not. Our continued commitment to this initiative for local roads boards in northern Ontario is another example of our government’s major investments in our region, and our commitment to the people of northern Ontario.
Bill Mauro MPP
Thunder Bay Atikokan