Grants fund much of Fort Frances road work: Town staff

In a recent social media post the Town of Fort Frances is reminding residents that they do indeed get grant funding to help pay for road repairs.

The post says that the Town has received questions and comments about grants for road work.

Part of the post goes into the purposes of some of the specific grant programs that are available to the municipality. Some grants are meant to be used for certain purposes like heritage projects or investments, while others can be used for infrastructure projects like road work.

“Grants like the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, FedNor, and the Ontario Trillium Foundation Resilient Communities Fund have prescribed usage, such as promoting economic development or supporting community initiatives. The recent grants to Sunny Cove, Hallett and Owandem, and the Museum align with these purposes making them eligible, while road projects are not,” The post says. “To ensure future eligibility, we need clear reporting demonstrating that the money was used for its intended purposes and not diverted to other areas.”

Interim Operations and Facilities Manager Craig Miller says there are different grants that the municipality can apply for which are more oriented towards roads and other infrastructure from both the provincial and federal government levels.

“For roads there’s one from the province called Connecting Links and it typically covers 90 per cent of the cost of reconstruction of the road, those are for provincial highways that run through municipalities,” Miller said. “Any work that’s done on highway 11 or 71, those qualify for a Connecting Links (grant), that’s the four laners, the strip down Central (ave) and then Scott St. out through Agamiing Dr.”

According to news.ontario.ca in the 2023-24 round of funding, Fort Frances received $92,867 towards the “Detailed Design for Reconstruction of Third Street West (Highway 11/71) from Central Avenue Westerly.”

That work will be done this year once the Connecting Links funding for the road work is awarded and the project goes to tender.

Over the last few years several major projects that the Town has addressed have been largely covered by grants, according to the release.

The 2022 King’s Highway reconstruction project was 90 per cent covered by grants, the 2022-23 Mowat Ave. reconstruction project was paid for 98 per cent through grant funding, and the 2023 Sinclair Ave. was 59 per cent covered by grants.

Upcoming projects for this construction season include a reconstruction project on First St. East which is 96.4 per cent covered by grants. The Third St. West reconstruction will be 66 per cent funded by grants. The municipality is also set to resurface sections of fifth and sixth streets and staff are currently applying for grants to defray the cost of that work as well.

The work on First St. East will be taking place in the block in front of the Fort Frances Times building, the tender for that work has been awarded, Miller says, and work should start some time in May. That work will be funded by another program.

“Another program that we use is called the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. That’s a federal program. There’s different streams of that but to assist in highway construction, we use what’s called the Green Infrastructure Stream that allows us to get funding for the water and sewer infrastructure,” Miller said. “Then another grant that’s available is called the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund. So that’s, again, another provincial fund, designed for supporting municipalities and we can use that work as well towards rebuilding infrastructure. And then we also receive the federal gas tax money that we can allocate towards roadworks.”

Fifth St. will be resurfaced from Portage Ave. to McIrvine Rd. and Sixth St. will be resurfaced from York Ave. to Keating Ave. Rather than digging up the roads and replacing them with asphalt the surfaces will be reworked with a different process, known as surface treatment Miller says.

“So what we will do is we will pulverize the existing surface and basically restore it to a gravel surface and get it graded back to basically a pre-surfacing condition,” Miller said. “There will be a contractor that will come in and do that, but it’s kind of like a tar covering where they then put the granules on top of it.”

The roads should then be in good shape for the next five to seven years, Miller says, and maintenance is not as intensive as replacing the asphalt every year.

“Typically, it has a lifespan of five to seven years, then ideally, at five years you do a new layer on top of that, so as long as you keep doing that new layer you maintain the surface,” Miller said.

The funding for the Fifth and Sixth St. work will be funded through town reserves, Miller says, with some of the money potentially coming from the federal gas tax rebate as well as the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund.

The post goes on to talk about the way the municipality prioritizes its budget.

“Efforts to maintain roads and infrastructure are ongoing, and these projects require careful planning to manage resources effectively. Rapid solutions would impose hefty financial burdens, not in line with residents’ preferences,” the release says. “The Town’s budget allocations aims to address diverse needs beyond only roads. While roads and infrastructure are crucial for safety, longevity, and connectivity, it’s essential to recognize that a vibrant town encompasses more than just its thoroughfares.

“From recreational facilities to cultural landmarks to municipal staples such as libraries, museums, parks, each plays a vital role in community well-being and in attracting residents, businesses, and tourists. This is exemplified in our strategic plan, which gathered resident input through multiple available opportunities to do so in 2023 (such as public sessions, surveys). We must consider the entire community’s needs holistically and do our best to utilize available funds from taxes, revenue, funding, and grants efficiently.”

The Municipality encourages residents to attend budget meetings each winter to express their opinions and give input into how the staff and council prioritize different aspects of the budget. They say that public input often comes too late to be taken into account for the budget.

Allan Bradbury, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Fort Frances Times