Stratford and other municipalities in the Perth-Wellington riding got a boost from the provincial government Thursday, as MPP Matthew Rae announced $14.2 million in funding from the province for local infrastructure projects in 2025.
Stratford got the largest portion of that, seeing over $3.5 million coming their way. Other municipalities in the area benefiting from it are St. Marys ($539,940), North Perth ($1.025 million), Perth County (almost $600,000), West Perth (more than $1.13 million), Perth East and Perth South ($535,579 and $447,790 respectively). Wellington County (more than $2.35 million), Minto (more than $1.5 million), Wellington North (over $1.4 million), and Mapleton (over $1.3 million) also received money from the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF).
“Our government is making important investments in our rural and small communities to build critical infrastructure such as roads, water and wastewater, and bridges,” Rae said. “We are supporting our municipal partners to help build necessary infrastructure, while reducing the impact on their budgets.”
Rae also said this funding is part of the Ford government’s $190 billion capital plan to build and expand more homes, highways, hospitals, transit, and high-speed internet across the province. In a prepared statement, he indicated that Ontario is set to allocate $400 million on OCIF funding to help 423 small, rural and northern communities with various projects.
Stratford mayor Martin Ritsma was pleased with the announcement and said the money hasn’t been earmarked for any specific projects yet but given the flexibility municipalities have to save it and use a larger lump-sum on something is a consideration.
“We have infrastructure that is currently in the ground that does need to be replaced, and as I alluded to Albert Street was one of those prime examples,” he said, referring to the recent work on two blocks of Albert just east of the downtown core. “A lot of that work that went on last year, but look at where we are today (on Avondale Avenue). This is at a point where the work needs to be done – most people see the final coat, but they don’t see the water mains, sewers or the sanitary stuff that has to be done in order to ensure we don’t have situations where it’s going to cost us much more if we’re not proactive.”
During the media event, Ritsma referenced the situation the city of Calgary found itself in earlier this year when they had issues with water mains breaking. Saying that all infrastructure ‘has a best-before date’, Ritsma gave credit to Stratford’s engineering department for keeping a current list of which projects have priority so they don’t encounter similar problems.
“We’re fortunate to have an engineering department that maps those out, whether it’s roads, sewers, or water mains that are high priority and those get ticked off the list first,” he said.
Rae added that the government relies on municipalities to keep them informed of what their priorities are, whether it be roads and sewers or other work that generally falls to the local level of government to handle.
“We rely on them to really assess their needs locally – they have that ability,” he said. “I know Mapleton is looking purely at housing and enabling wastewater infrastructure, so each municipality can decide how to use it or if they want to bank it for a few years to use on a larger project they have coming up. That gives them that flexibility, which is why we rely really heavily on our municipal partners; someone in downtown Toronto is not really going to understand what Stratford is going to need in infrastructure”
Ritsma also indicated the city’s appreciation for the ongoing OCIF funding contributions, saying it helps them meet the challenges they face as a small city. As part of the prepared statement for the event, Kinga Surma, Ontario’s infrastructure minister, said cities like Stratford are key components of helping the province grow as a whole.
“Small, rural and northern communities are essential to the growth and prosperity of Ontario,” Surma said in the prepared statement. “By providing direct and stable funding to these communities, our government is helping create local jobs, drive economic growth and build stronger, more resilient communities for generations to come.”
The OCIF prodives funding for local infrastructure projects in municipalities with populations under 100,000, rural and northern municipalities, as well as for local services boards that own water or wastewater systems. Funding allocations are based on a formula that accounts for the different needs and economic conditions of each community.
