Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
ARNPRIOR — Thanks to federal and provincial funding from the Building Canada fund, Hawkesbury will spend $35 million to upgrade its sewage treatment plant. The Township of Edwardsburgh and Cardinal has $34 million to rebuild a wharf. Even Merrickville got approval for a new $7.3-million sewage treatment plant.
So why was the town of Arnprior stiffed when it asked for money to help fund a $15.9-million upgrade to its overflowing sewage system?
Mayor Terry Gibaud is looking for answers from Industry Canada, the department that administers the Building Canada infrastructure fund.
“What’s going on here?” asks a frustrated Gibaud.
He wants to know why most municipal applicants in Eastern Ontario were handed a slice of a $670-million federal-provincial infrastructure pie last month while his town is stuck with a water treatment plant that feeds raw sewage into the Madawaska and Ottawa rivers.
“We have gone through the hoops,” said Gibaud. “We have made the proper applications, we have done the things we need to do for the criteria and that’s not working.”
What makes the refusal galling to him is very few applicants were turned down for the funds and the relatively small population of Eastern Ontario received a windfall when it was unexpectedly given about half of the money allocated for all of Ontario.
Arnprior officials were optimistic their third application — their first under the new Building Canada program — for funds to upgrade the plant would be successful “because it fit all the criteria,” Gibaud said.
The costs of Building Canada projects are divided equally between the federal government, the province and the municipality.
Arnprior applied under what is known as the Communities Component of the fund, which is designed to help cash-starved municipalities with populations of less than 100,000 that are desperate to fix crumbling infrastructure such as water treatment and sewage facilities.
According to a spokesman for Industry Canada, the program received more than 300 applications worth more than $1.5 billion in total eligible project costs.
“… The demand was more than the total funding available for the entire intake,” said Derek Mellon in an e-mail to the Citizen.
Mellon went on to say that “in light of the economic changes facing Ontario, consideration was given to ‘shovel-ready’ projects to help stimulate local economies and create jobs.”
Gibaud said Arnprior’s project would have been ready to go two months after funding approval.
Most municipal leaders agree Building Canada is an improvement over the old Canada-Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund, which offered much less money for a larger group of municipalities.
“There were fewer winners under that program,” said Pat Vanini, executive director of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO).
She said last year the AMO was hoping for $300 million in infrastructure money for smaller Ontario communities and was pleased to see the amount more than doubled, allowing 85 per cent of applicants to move forward with their project. Arnprior was part of the other 15 per cent.
“The federal and provincial governments have set up priorities so I don’t know how Arnprior stacked up against those,” said Vanini.
The Town of Hawkesbury, southeast of Ottawa, received the largest sum of money in Ontario for a $35- million upgrade to its sewage treatment plant. Hawkesbury’s sewage plant, like Arnprior’s, is too small. “We succeeded,” said Jeanne Charlebois, mayor of Hawkesbury.
“Everybody knew what they had to do politically, administratively, and professionally. Politically our members of Parliament delivered at both levels.”
Similarly, Larry Dishaw, the mayor of the sparsely populated township of Edwardsburgh and Cardinal, near Prescott, had a $34-million project approved to rebuild the wharf at the Port of Prescott. “The two-levels of government realized this port was important to this area,” said Dishaw.
The sewage treatment plant in Arnprior has reached its capacity, says Gibaud. Heavy rainfall causes raw sewage to bypass the plant and flow untreated into the Madawaska River near its confluence with the Ottawa as many as 50 times a year.
Gibaud met with the area’s Conservative MP, Cheryl Gallant, on March 6 and was told “they are looking to find out why we didn’t get funded and they are looking for some money.”
He said the entire process for funding infrastructure needs to be reviewed because guidelines for these programs are often unclear and change without notice, adding he was told the criteria changed after the Nov. 21 deadline.
“The whole funding thing has become a game where the municipalities are trying to second-guess what might be funded. It’s kind of like a lottery,” said Gibaud.
He said program officials are now suggesting his project will likely be funded during Round 2 of the Building Canada program, expected to be unveiled in a matter of weeks. Gibaud said he expects a decision on their next application some time this fall. If successful, the sewage treatment facility could be upgraded by 2012. This will improve the quality of the water being returned to the Ottawa River and should prevent raw sewage from making its way into the area’s waterways.
© Copyright © The Ottawa Citizen