While Ontario has promised $74 million to rebuild the Connecting Link through Timmins, Finance Minister Peter Bethelveny isn't committing to tabling the same budget after the June election.
Today, Bethelveny revealed the 2022 Ontario budget. It will not be approved ahead of the start of the official campaigning period for the June 2 election.
In a news conference, he said that the people of Ontario will vote on the budget. When asked a yes or no question about whether the Progressive Conservative government would reintroduce the same document after the election, he refused to commit to it.
Today's budget includes reconstructing the Connecting Link through Timmins. The provincial breakdown doesn't include a price tag, however, a City of Timmins news release says it's for $74 million.
In Timmins, the Connecting Link is a 21.35-kilometre stretch of Highway 101 running from Kamiskotia Road in the west to the old railway tracks in Porcupine.
Recently, Timmins awarded a $27.9 million, three-year contract to fully reconstruct the water, the water, sanitary and storm infrastructure, new curbs and sidewalks, and new asphalt and light standards in downtown Timmins.
To offset the cost in the past, the city has applied to the provincial Connecting Link fund that caps funding at $3 million per year or $5 million for work that involves bridges. The city typically gets Connecting Link funding every two years.
Mayor George Pirie, who is the Progressive Conservative candidate for Timmins in the June 2 election, said the funding is "transformative".
“These dollars will go towards eliminating the city’s infrastructure deficit and allow the city to begin a new and exciting era of renewal and regeneration. We are now into the second decade of the second century of the city’s existence and this announcement will allow us to secure our future and our place as the economic and cultural centre of Northeastern Ontario," he said in a statement.
Timmins MPP Gilles Bisson said funding for the Connecting Link is something that mayors and councils have been working on since the highway was downloaded to the municipality under Mike Harris.
"Dating back to the time of Jamie Lim and every mayor since, we’ve been arguing with province that, in fact, the province should reupload that highway because it’s not just a municipal road, it’s a highway that runs through our city,” he said.
What it looks like the government is proposing, said Bisson, is giving money to reconstruct it instead of uploading it to the province. He said it's good news for the city if it happens.
The election writ is expected to drop on May 4 and marks the start of the official campaign period. In Timmins, the other confirmed candidate is Bisson, who is the incumbent for the NDP.
