Perth-Wellington MPP Randy Pettapiece attended the Wellington North council meeting here on Jan. 26 to provide an update on developments at the provincial legislature.
Pettapiece gave council a copy of the letter he personally penned on their behalf to Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure Brad Duguid emphasizing the township’s need for infrastructure improvements on the heels of its application for government funding assistance.
“The Township of Wellington North has plans for sewer system and intersection improvements on Frederick Street in Arthur,” Pettapiece wrote. “This project addresses much needed infrastructure upgrades and improvement. Their plan is consistent with the premier’s recent focus on the need for infrastructure investment.”
Wellington North has applied for $870,000 in funding through the program.
Pettapiece mentioned the government’s recent commitment to the creation of jobs in the agricultural sector – he said if this is to come to fruition, infrastructure in rural communities must be improved in order to support new growth.
“If we don’t keep our infrastructure current it’s going to be difficult to attract people out there to fill those jobs,” he said.
“We want to see these factories migrating to rural areas and not taking up space in the GTA and other urban centres … so it’s also important to have good hospitals and recreation centres because these are the things people will be looking at.”
He noted with the number of bridges marked for maintenance he intends to fight for as much funding as possible.
“There is $29 billion earmarked for infrastructure – $15 million to the larger cities and $14 million for rural Ontario. My goal is that this riding receive its fair share over the next number of years.”
Pettapiece also expressed frustration about the onerous ice storm funding process which has yet to return any money to municipalities, nearly a year after the fact.
“We are very surprised this has been going on for over a year and nobody has received any money yet,” he said. “As I reminded the premier, we didn’t even get a gift basket, so I’m very disappointed in the way this has been handled.”
He said the government has hired a consulting firm to handle the applications.
“There’s very little money available and yet the consulting firm was $2.9 million,” he explained. “I’m sure that money could have been used a lot wiser.”
Pettapiece explained that when he looked into the consulting firm further, he discovered they had previously been terminated by the Alberta government for alleged mismanagement of a similar job.
“I think ministries should look after their ministries – when communities have been waiting for over a year and haven’t received a nickel and the government goes out and spends this much money on a consulting firm … I don’t think that was fair,” he said.
“It was a waste of money – that money could be better spent going to you people than a consulting firm.”
In addition to the aforementioned issues, Pettapiece says he will continue to advocate and communicate with the government on behalf of the horse racing industry this term.
“I still keep in contact with the race horse industry and contrary to what you read it’s still having issues – I get this information from the grassroots guys, not the bigger racetracks,” he said.
“We certainly hope there are some issues there we can bring to the government’s attention. It was certainly a devastating time in Ontario’s history when the race horse industry was cut up mercilessly when that budget was passed in 2012.”
