{"id":8541,"date":"2014-10-18T23:38:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-19T03:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8541"},"modified":"2014-10-29T17:22:23","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T21:22:23","slug":"view-from-queens-park-critical-investments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/view-from-queens-park-critical-investments\/","title":{"rendered":"VIEW FROM QUEEN’S PARK: Critical Investments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making Critical Investments in Ontario’s Infrastructure
\nBy Chris Ballard, MPP
\nNewmarket-Aurora <\/strong><\/p>\n

As a member of the Ontario Legislative Estimates Committee, I have a front-row seat as Ministers bring forward their budget estimates for presentation and questioning by members of all three parties.
\nThis past week, Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure presented his ministry\u2019s financial estimates related to infrastructure \u2013 and was thoroughly questioned by committee members.
\nMinister Duguid spoke at length about how the government oversees infrastructure planning and investment, how it manages sustainable growth in communities, and how it develops and implements strategic policies for government-owned assets.
\nThis year, for the first time, the Minister\u2019s priorities are being made available to the general public, as ministry mandate letters have been posted online. In these letters, Premier Kathleen Wynne sets out the government\u2019s direction for each Minister. These letters make for informative reading.
\nMinister Duguid reiterated the importance of building modern infrastructure and that no government has done as much as ours to build and repair critical infrastructure.
\nInvesting in infrastructure drives economic growth. The Conference Board of Canada reported in a study released in April 2013 that each dollar invested in public infrastructure in Ontario raises Gross Domestic Product by $1.14 in the near-term.
\nIn addition, the government\u2019s own studies show the return on this dollar grows to $3.10 in the long-term, while supporting jobs and facilitating private investment.
\nThe government\u2019s 10-year infrastructure plan is expected to support, on average, more than 110,000 jobs each year in construction and related industries.
\nSince 2003, the Province has invested nearly $100 billion on infrastructure, focusing on what makes our communities strong \u2013 assets like hospitals, schools, transit and highways.
\nAnd the 2014 Ontario Budget commits to investing more than $130 billion in public infrastructure over the next 10 years, including about $12.8 billion in 2014-15.
\nIn comparison, that\u2019s almost twice as much from Ontario alone than the $70 billion the federal government plans to spend nationwide over the same period.
\nMinister Duguid repeated his call for a strong federal partner to build the modern infrastructure our growing economy needs \u2013 and asked the federal government to match this provincial government\u2019s commitment.
\nWhen examples of infrastructure Ontario has invested in are tabulated, the numbers are remarkable:
\nIn the past decade in Ontario we\u2019ve built 23 new hospitals.
\nSix-hundred-and-fifty schools have opened or are under construction.
\nWe\u2019ve invested almost $17 billion in capital funding to support public transit across the province.
\nWe\u2019ve expanded or rehabilitated over 7,900 kilometres of highways \u2013 that\u2019s more than the distance from Toronto to Vancouver and back.
\nWe\u2019ve built or repaired 950 bridges, more than double the number of municipalities in Ontario.
\nMinister Duguid also outlined planned investments as part of this government\u2019s 10-year framework that include major transit projects and $11.4 billion in major hospital expansion and redevelopment projects over the next 10 years. This is in addition to the 10-year funding of almost $700 million for repairs in hospitals and $300 million to help shift care from hospitals to community settings.
\nThe government will provide more than $11 billion over the next 10 years in elementary and secondary education infrastructure funding, which includes more than $4.2 billion for school repairs, and $750 million over four years in new capital funding to support school consolidations.
\nThe government recognizes the importance of investing in municipal projects. As a former town councillor, I know all too well the challenge we face both maintaining existing municipal infrastructure and building new infrastructure for the future.
\nThe province has already made nearly $200 million available under its Municipal Infrastructure Strategy to help municipalities prepare asset management plans and address critical road and bridge projects.
\nI was delighted to share with the mayors of Newmarket and Aurora last week that the province has approved separate grants totalling over $500,000 that will help our communities with infrastructure repair.
\nMore needs to be done to help our municipalities maintain critical road, bridge and water infrastructure. In August, the government launched the permanent Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund that will provide $100 million per year for small, northern and rural communities.
\nMinister Duguid says his Ministry has put a strong focus on the importance of asset management for both provincial and municipal infrastructure, and has helped hundreds of municipalities with implementation.
\nOur government has consulted with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) to develop the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund that will see both Ontario and Canada each invest $272 million to support critical projects in communities with populations under 100,000.
\nWe\u2019ve worked closely with AMO on the structure of this new, permanent fund. This is what municipalities were calling for, and this government delivered.
\nOur government values its AMO partnership in helping communities like Aurora and Newmarket. We will continue to take a strong stand on behalf of municipalities to demand the federal government increase its infrastructure spending and ensure Ontario communities get their fair share.<\/p>\n

Contact MPP Chris Ballard at his Community Office: 905-750-0019, or by email: cballard.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org. Chris\u2019 office is located in Suite 201, 14845 Yonge St., Aurora L4G 6H8. Office hours are 9 a.m. \u2013 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making Critical Investments in Ontario’s Infrastructure By Chris Ballard, MPP Newmarket-Aurora As a member of the Ontario Legislative Estimates Committee, I have a front-row seat as Ministers bring forward their budget estimates for presentation and questioning by members of all three parties. This past week, Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure presented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2dL","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 07:37:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}