Gas Tax Fund doubles for municipalities, $13M extra coming to Windsor
Windsor will get an extra $13 million for infrastructure projects.
Wrapped into the federal Liberals' budget, announced Tuesday, is a proposed one-time increase of $2.2 billion to the federal Gas Tax Fund.
The fund provides money up front to provinces and territories, who then pass that funding on to municipalities. The $2.2 billion increase doubles the commitment from the federal government.
In 2017-2018, Windsor received almost $13 million from the GTF. For 2018-2019, it was close to $13.5 million.
Chief Administrative Officer Onorio Colucci said the city welcomes the announcement.
"It was unexpected," said Colucci. "We'll have to decide how to use these funds if the money does materialize."
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario administers the GTF in this province. Municipalities must report back on what projects they used the funding for. AMO uses population to determine how much funding goes to each municipality, so cities know in advance what they'll receive.
According AMO, the doubling could be considered a "top-up." Municipalities will get their original expected payment, then receive a second payment once the federal funding has been released to AMO. For 2019-20, Windsor was expecting a total payment of $13,177,322.
Windsor GTF projects in 2017
Windsor used money from the Gas Tax Fund for a number of projects in 2017:
Building condition assessments: $55,000
Rehabilitation of four bridges: $1,624,500
Development of cycling network: $302,500
Sidewalk rehabilitation in multiple locations: $97,600
Road reconstruction and rehabilitation of multiple streets: $6,684,136
Rehabilitation of bridges city wide: $1,278,500
Pavement rehabilitation in multiple locations: $391,800
Traffic signal system upgrades: $239,500
Transit Windsor fleet replacement: $89,500
The annual report detailing projects from 2018 was not available.
As for 2019 projects, "We have to get together as an administration and recommend something to council," Colucci said.
"There are many needs, like any municipality. There's things like roads and bridges. We've often used the funding for those types of expenditures. But there's also public transit, airports, solid waste. It's fairly broad."
The municipal budget is set to be discussed April 1 and 2."There's no shortage of potential projects it could be used for," said Colucci. "It will allow us to recommend some projects that wouldn't have been possible."
