A meeting with the provincial assistant to Ontario’s infrastructure minister was positive, says Lambton County’s warden.
But there’s nothing to announce about the push for $6 million in federal and provincial cash to help fund an oversized load corridor expected to create jobs and business in Sarnia-Lambton, Bill Weber said.
The parliamentary assistant was “very receptive to what we’re trying to do,” Weber said, after the meeting at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa Tuesday that also included deputy warden John McCharles, and county councillors Steve Arnold, mayor of St. Clair Township, and Anne Marie Gillis, a member of Sarnia City Council.
“We’ll look at opportunities for programs that fit,” Weber said.
“So it’s wait and see now I guess and continue to dialogue.”
It’s the same situation for extra funding the Municipality of Lambton Shores is looking for from the Ministry of Transportation for a $6.5 million Highway 21 bridge replacement project in Grand Bend, said Weber, who is also mayor of Lambton Shores.
“The comment is when they get through the line-by-line (audit) of the budget, they will look at the program and see whether there’s adjustments made to that,” Weber said.
The ministry’s Connecting Links program currently provides up to $3 million for projects, he said, but Lambton Shores is looking for 90 per cent of costs to be covered.
The $12-million oversized load corridor project – designed to let oversized modules from local fabricators pass unencumbered and thereby more cheaply to Sarnia Harbour – has $6 million in place so far from the county, City of Sarnia, St. Clair Township and the Sarnia Lambton Industrial Alliance.
The local groups have said they plan to move forward on aspects of the project with half the funding in place.
www.theobserver.ca/news/local-news/amo-meetings-went-well-warden-says