The City of Sarnia will receive less funding this year through the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF) which may affect future road rehabilitation projects.
The OCIF was launched in 2014 in an effort to support economic growth and job creation. In total, the provincial government will allocate $400 million in 2024 to 425 small, rural, and northern communities.
As announced last month by MPP Bob Bailey, more than $12.4 million in grant funding will be dispersed to municipalities in Sarnia-Lambton.
The city will receive $5.4 million, which is less than the $6.3 million received in 2023.
Since the city primarily designates these funds to road rehabilitation and bridge reconstruction, General Manager of Engineering and Operations David Jackson said the funding amount will have an effect on future projects.
"Often we don't find out the final amount until we've set our budget," he said. "So this year, we're getting approximately $1 million less than last year and we had kind of based our budget on using last year's numbers. So it has no impact on us in the work we planned to do for 2024 itself, but it'll impact 2025 and those future years and we have to readjust our planned funding amount for those."
Jackson said the province uses a formula to evaluate how much funding each municipality should receive, based on economic conditions and the value of assets in the community.
"We're always appreciative to get those funds but it was unfortunate to see the significant decrease this year," he said.
Jackson said the city does receive other forms of government funding, such as the Canada Community Building Fund, but when it comes to planning projects for 2025, capital spending will either have to be reduced or funded through the city's tax base.
"It does create some challenges for us," Jackson said. "In this case, now we can plan in advance with a slightly lower planned allotment for next year and either reduce the scope that we would do or look to increase our own funding source."
However, 2024 is still expected to remain a busy construction year for the city. Jackson said $3.75 million has been budgeted for the road rehabilitation program, funded through OCIF.
"[This] is the biggest road rehabilitation program we've ever funded so we are excited to make those investments," he said. "We were using some of the other remainders of that fund for a couple of smaller bridge projects we have underway."
Meanwhile, OCIF funding was also allocated to seven other municipalities, as listed below.
St. Clair Township - $2.7 million
County of Lambton - $2 million
Enniskillen Township - $315,303
Village of Oil Springs - $132,250
Town of Petrolia - $667,939
Plympton-Wyoming - $838,173
Village of Point Edward - $259,281
-With files from Melanie Irwin