Bruce County council's application for provincial disaster relief funding for the Chesley Main Street Bridge has been rejected.
Director of Corporate Services Bettyanne Cobean said provincial officials informed the county verbally of the decision, citing eligible costs do not meet the threshold to trigger disaster relief funding.
She said of the $3 million cost of replacing the flood-damaged bridge, the province determined only about $858,000 was eligible for funding, well shy of the $1.29 million required eligible costs.
Cobean said there has been no explanation as to how the formula was calculated, but she suspects the fact the bridge was 96 years old played a significant factor.
"What we believe to be the case, is that [the province] have applied a formula that takes into consideration the age of the bridge," said Cobean.
She said county officials are arranging a conference call with their provincial counterparts in order to gain a better understanding as to how disaster relief calculations are performed.
Cobean said the county will be footing the bill for the bridge internally, though they have applied to the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund for about $690,000 in funding.
Warden Paul Eagleson said it's too bad, but he's not surprised.
"Because that bridge was already on a repair schedule, it was only a couple years out, the county should've been having some funds getting ready to go for that," said Eagleson. "Yeah, it went out on an emergency, but yet, we should've been saving money to replace it, so it doesn't shock me that we didn't receive that emergency funding. It's unfortunate."
As for the bridge reconstruction in Chesley, Director of Transportation and Environment Services Miguel Pelletier said the bridge remains on target to open sometime in December.
