There will be no penalty after all for municipalities like Mapleton Township, which will not be able to complete infrastructure projects by the March 31 deadline that had received funding from the federal government.
On Dec. 2, the government announced it is extending the deadline to Oct. 31, for stimulus projects funded by the Knowledge Infrastructure Program, the Building Canada Fund, the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund and the Recreational Infrastructure Canada Program.
At its last meeting in November, Mapleton council decided not to proceed with paving and curbing work at the new Alma community hall due to weather conditions and the amount of moisture on the site at Wallace Cumming Park.
Finance Director Mike Givens had stated there was a chance the township could lose the federal and provincial funding for that portion of the building (the new hall received a $1,561,700 grant last year under the Building Canada Fund).
However, last week’s announcement means the municipality does not have to worry about that at all. Neither do others across the country.
“We applaud the federal government for standing by its stimulus partners,” said Hans Cunningham, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), which lobbied at length for an extension.
“Municipalities have worked flat out to keep 90 per cent of projects on schedule. Now they’ll have one more construction season to turn every last stimulus dollar into a job.”
Cunningham continued, “The Economic Action Plan was a partnership between governments to protect Canadians during a global crisis – and that partnership has delivered results. Municipalities are co-funding $10-billion worth of stimulus projects that will keep 100,000 Canadians on the job and supporting their families.”
Under the Economic Action Plan, more than 20,000 projects have been completed or are under way to repair Canada’s aging roads and water systems, provide affordable housing and improve community and recreation facilities.
