Owen Sound Mayor Ruth Lovell Stanners says they are ready to go with several infrastructure projects but are a little concerned the city would be responsible for one third funding of any project.
She says she was hoping the government would offer cash strapped municipalities the infrastructure funding in the form of a grant with no strings attached.
Lovell Stanners says they could have a shovel in the ground tomorrow for projects like fixing up 10th ave. east or the 9th street bridge replacement.
Her thoughts are shared by Meaford Mayor Francis Richardson who does not like the fact municipalities will have to compete to get their hands on infrastructure money.
Richardson also is critical of the measure that requires towns to pay for one third of any infrastructure upgrade and he says in Meaford’s case they simply do not have that kind of money laying around.
However he says that wont stop them from applying to fund some essential infrastructure works in the Municipality.
Grey County Warden Kevin Eccles says like Owen Sound, they are ready to hit the ground running with several projects.
He says if they are able to obtain some infrastructure funding, there are several aging bridges that must be replaced and there is a lot of roads that need to be upgraded as well.
Eccles says he is especially pleased the government is allocating billions of dollars to improve social housing across the country.
He says that is one area where the County would want to move quickly to either improve existing social housing or begin construction on new low income accommodation.
