The Premier insists the province’s small communities are being recognized by his government.
Doug Ford addressed municipal leaders attending the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference in Toronto on Monday, outlining funding and programs that benefit small, rural and northern communities.
Ford adds that no government has invested more in the north than his.
“We think it’s the greatest area to prosper and thrive and grow and attract businesses, no matter if it’s the lumber, no matter if it’s our energy that we’re building or the Ring of Fire and everything else in between,” says Ford.
Ford noted specific investments in roads, housing, and transit.
This includes spending $30 billion over the next 10 years to repair and expand roads, highways and bridges, especially in rural areas.
He says it is necessary to improve safety.
“It’s been very disturbing to hear all the accidents up north,” says Ford.
“I get the calls right to my cell phone, and we’re doing everything we can to twin roads, to put two in one roads, to make it safer, making sure that the roads get plowed and salted as quickly as possible because there’ve been tragedies over the holidays and no one wants that.”
Ford also noted the $70 billion to improve transit services, with $25 million earmarked for small communities.
The province is also making $400 million available to small, rural and northern communities to develop or upgrade infrastructure to add to new housing projects.
