Mayor Karen Farbridge’s Blog

In August, the Province of Ontario announced new infrastructure funding for municipalites.This meant almost $11 million to invest in local infrastructure and projects.

Today, Liz Sandals announced the formal receipt of the funding by Guelph and I provided an overview of how the money will be invested. 

Media release (PDF)
Backgrounder (PDF)

Speaking notes: 

Good morning. It’s a pleasure to be here this morning to help share more details on how the City of Guelph will put this $11 million provincial grant to work in our community. I want to thank Liz and the Province of Ontario for working with municipalities, and hearing us when we have said that we need support for infrastructure.

This funding is certainly welcome as we work on our municipal budget.

You all have the list of Guelph’s projects before you.

Roads and stormwater management projects

As you can see, the bulk of the funds will go to vital road and storm water management projects. These are the types of projects that don’t usually get a lot of attention. They’re not as exciting as a new library or arena. But they certainly need to be done. In a lot of cases, the City has been forced to delay these types of projects due to budget constraints. The result is roads that are badly in need of repair, and storm sewers that are past due for replacement.  This doesn’t make anybody happy. So I am delighted that we will be able to address these issues, without undue burden on property taxpayers. 

Parks

You will see that we also have a number of parks projects on our list.  In many cases, neighbourhoods have been waiting for these park improvements for a long time. Most of these projects are not particularly big-ticket or high profile items. They are projects like new bleachers, improved lighting, and repairs to splash pads. But I can guarantee that they will make a big difference to the people in the neighbourhoods who love their parks.  Whenever we talk about quality of life in this community, parks are one of the things that people always mention as being important. So I’m glad that we are able to make these improvements, thanks to this provincial funding.

 There are a couple of projects on the list that are high-profile.

 Civic Square

One is the Civic Square project. We have heard loud and clear that the community wants to see something that creates a gathering space in that area – something that contributes to the downtown landscape. This funding will help us achieve that.

Youth Shelter 

Another high-profile project is the Youth Shelter. As most of you know, the City took the initiative to purchase a building on Norwich Street, and we are currently renovating it for use as a shelter for at-risk youth. We did this because Council felt very strongly that the need is there, and we have to respond. So, the funding will help us meet that urgent need in our community.

 Increased waste diversion

Finally, I’d like to talk about the project that is the reason we’re here today at the Waste Resource Innovation Centre. This project is a big-ticket item. $1,100,000 to be exact. It involves installing an optical sorting unit to more efficiently sort plastic products. This will improve our recovery of plastics. It’s consistent with our Solid Waste Management Master Plan, and its philosophy of zero waste – that means everything is composted or recycled. We may never be able to attain zero waste, but it’s important that we keep moving in that direction. Our Solid Waste Management Master Plan sets targets for diversion: 55% by 2011; 65% by 2016; and 70% by 2021. Doing a better job of sorting plastics will help us meet our goals.

 Just a couple of months ago I was here in this very room, announcing new glass sorting technology. I said at that time that I’ve learned over the years that, when it comes to waste management, almost nothing is simple – and almost nothing is cheap! But it does pay long-term dividends. And I hear over and over from residents – both informally and through surveys we have done – that they want Guelph to return to being a leader in waste management. Implementation of our Waste Management Master Plan is one of the top priorities of Council. 

So I am delighted that this Provincial funding will help us to complete a major initiative that will help us get there.

Once again, I want to thank Liz for being a strong champion for Guelph at the provincial level. And I want to thank the provincial government for hearing our concerns about municipal infrastructure. I believe that each one of these infrastructure projects will help us build a better and more prosperous community. 

Thank you.