Essex County Warden Tom Bain delivers his 5th annual address at the Ciociaro Club in Windsor, March 13, 2015. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)Essex County Warden Tom Bain delivers his 5th annual address at the Ciociaro Club in Windsor, March 13, 2015. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)
Windsor

Bain: We Want Fairness

The County of Essex is pushing for its "fair and non-partisan" share of infrastructure money from Queen's Park and Ottawa.

Warden Tom Bain says municipalities are being squeezed by both provincial and federal governments.

"There's different ways they're downloading onto us, they're sideloading onto us," says Bain. "Areas where there's to be uploading it's being dragged out longer and longer. In the interim, it's the good ol' municipal taxpayer that's funding it."

The county is backing a resolution from Perth-Wellington MPP Randy Pettapiece calling for government ridings and opposition ridings to be treated the same when it comes to dishing out infrastructure grants.

"This is really Essex County lending reinforcement to what we started at the [Association of Municipalities of Ontario] conference," says Bain.

While the resolution is targeting the provincial government, Bain says it will also be shared with their federal counterparts.

"It seems to be if you're a municipality that's doing well, then you're almost penalized for doing well," says Bain. "It's both levels of government. We want resolutions out there that state, 'We want fairness.'"

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Photo by Sarah Joy via Flickr

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