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October 8, 2013

Connecting Link cancellation hurts local municipalities

Press Releases 2013

NEWS RELEASE
Ted Arnott, MPP
Wellington-Halton Hills
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2013

Connecting Link cancellation hurts local municipalities

(Queen’s Park) – The Government’s decision to cancel the Connecting Link program is hurting
local municipalities, says Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott.

“The cancellation of the Ministry of Transportation’s Connecting Link program is a disgraceful
abrogation of responsibility on the part of the Liberal Government,” Mr. Arnott told the Ontario
Legislature on October 8.

Mr. Arnott noted that the Connecting Link program had provided municipalities with a stable
source of funding for up to 90% of the cost of necessary road and bridge repairs on provincial
highways passing through built up areas. It is a program which has been in place since the
1920s, when George Howard Ferguson was Premier of Ontario.

The cost to local municipalities will be significant.

“For the Township of Centre Wellington, this represents a massive download of the full cost of
repairing the St. David St. bridge in Fergus next year,” Mr. Arnott pointed out afterwards. “This
is expected to cost $3.5 million.”

“For the Town of Halton Hills, this represents a massive download of the full cost of $9.4 million
of planned construction work over the next 5 years on Connecting Link roadways,” Mr. Arnott
continued. “This will put immense pressure on the Town’s finances, especially their Capital
Replacement Reserve.”

Concluding his statement, Mr. Arnott called on the Wynne Government to restore funding for the
Connecting Link program.

“As a former Minister of Transportation, the Premier should know how important this program
has been through the years and that it’s still relevant today,” Mr. Arnott insisted. “I call upon the
Government to either reconstitute the Connecting Link program as it has existed for
generations, or help to fund each and every one of the Connecting Link municipal infrastructure
projects we need in Wellington-Halton Hills.”

(Attached: Text of Mr. Arnott’s statement in the Ontario Legislature, October 8, 2013)
– 30 –

Ted Arnott, MPP
Phone: 416-325-3880
Email: ted.arnott@pc.ola.org

Ted Arnott, MPP
Wellington-Halton Hills

Text of Mr. Arnott’s statement in the Ontario Legislature,
October 8, 2013

Mr. Speaker:

The cancellation of the Ministry of Transportation’s Connecting Link program is a disgraceful
abrogation of responsibility on the part of the Liberal Government.

Earlier this year, in spite of a commitment to all municipalities, the spirit of which was intended to
assure them that no significant decisions affecting the budgets of municipalities would be taken
by the Provincial Government without consultation,

The Provincial Government arbitrarily and suddenly cancelled the Connecting Link program,
which I believe has existed since 1927, when George Howard Ferguson was Premier of Ontario.

Since before the Depression, since before the Second World War, since before any Member of
the current Legislature was even born, the Connecting Link program has been a joint
partnership between local and provincial Government.

Recognizing that provincial traffic on provincial highways travels through built up areas in
smaller communities, the Connecting Link program has paid for up to 90 percent of the cost of
necessary road and bridge repairs through these “connecting links.”

I first raised this in the House on May 28, and have heard from the Township of Centre
Wellington and the Town of Halton Hills. Both of them are rightly pushing back on this massive
download of costs.

As a former Minister of Transportation, the Premier should know how important this program
has been through the years and that it’s still relevant today.

I call upon the Government to either reconstitute the Connecting Link program as it has existed
for generations, or help to fund each and every one of the Connecting Link municipal
infrastructure projects we need in Wellington-Halton Hills.

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