The federal and provincial governments are providing about $60,000 to municipalities in northwestern Ontario, as communities continue to recover from the effects of COVID-19.
The Ontario government says $505 million in funding will be split between 107 municipalities in Ontario to help municipal transit systems with revenue losses, operating expenses, provincial transit priority projects and providing on-demand transit services.
- City of Kenora - $20,072
- City of Dryden - $19,238
- Town of Fort Frances - $5,000
- Municipality of Machin - $9,142
- Municipality of Sioux Lookout - $5,000
“Phase 4 of our Safe Restart Agreement ensures municipalities can continue to deliver safe and reliable local public transit in Kenora, Dryden, Machin and Fort Frances,” said Greg Rickford, MPP for Kenora–Rainy River. “This is just one more example of our government's plan to build a robust transportation network across the North that will keep goods and people moving.”
The Municipality of Red Lake and the Township of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls did not receive any funding. The City of Toronto, meanwhile, received a high of $347 million.
Ontario’s original Safe Restart funding provided $1.6 billion in municipal transit funding to Ontario’s 444 municipalities in 2020. Two years ago, Kenora received close to $1 million, while Dryden saw $450,000 and Sioux Lookout received $325,000.
Ontario provided a second round of Safe Restart funding in 2021 with another $500 million investment. Across the northwest, we saw about $670,000 split between the region.