The towns of Hearst and Kapuskasing are getting increases in money to run day to day services through the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund.
The province made the announcements during a whistle stop tour. Mayor Dave Plourde says the bump up in funding is huge for the north.
“I mean this $360,000 or thereabouts will really help us with a lot of different services that we have,” he said. “And it really shows that the government that the government is listening and we have the ear of government when we require financing to do the really needed work in our community.”
Hearst picks up $2.5 million this year while Kapuskasing is getting just under $5 million.
“This really falls on the government and they recognize the need to do more to the communities that are having a real difficult time to run services that are required, and this is just one step for Kapuskasing but certainly to a lot of northern communities this is huge,” he said.
This year’s OMPF grant included an immediate boost of $50 million that’s targeted for small northern and rural municipalities.
