Information from the Ministry of Finance regarding the 2008 Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund reconciliation is not the News councillors in Wellington North were hoping to hear.
Township Treasurer John Jeffrey told councillors recently that it has to do with the funding, which has taken a significant cut going into 2010.
Jeffrey said that in conversations with the ministry, “as a means of appeasing us, they were reconciling the amounts from 2008, adjusting some of the calculations based on the updated assessment numbers. That’s what this letter is telling us.”
However, “It doesn’t mean any more money for us,” he said.
Jeffrey said “I believe that in all of Wellington County, Minto got another $50. Other than Minto, none of us got any more funds.”
But, the Ministry did go through the exercise of checking the numbers … “So they’ve done what they said they would.” Jeffrey said.
Chaulk said “once they survived the storm of complaints … there was no way they were going to change the numbers. They might say they might. But it meant diddley squat.”
Councillor Dan Yake added that municipalities should be prepared for the next few years that the OMPF?grant will be reduced significantly.
His impression, as a result of discussions with local MPP?John Wilkinson, was any chance of additional funds “does not look promising.”
“No good News coming out of that,” Mayor Mike Broomhead said. The OMPF was initiated by the provincial government at amalgamation to help offset some of the provincial downloading costs.
