Ontario's 2015 budget has a mixed bag of treats and cuts for residents in Chatham-Kent.
Chatham-Kent Chief Financial Officer Mike Turner says the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund is being slashed by about $10-million. "We're not sure exactly what impact that is going to have on our share of the OMPF funding, but we know that it'll go down a little bit," says Turner. "We had already sort of been planning for that because we knew it would be going down at some point in the 2016 year."
St. Clair Catholic District School Board Director of Education Dan Parr says news of possible school consolidations was no surprise. "Much of the news about funding from the provincial government for school board operations for the next school year has already been released to schools," says Parr. "We knew, and I think everyone in Ontario knows, that we're in a time of fiscal restraint."
Parr says he's not concerned about school consolidations in the area because his board is at an average of 85% capacity.
The 2015 budget also includes $11.9-billion to be spent on infrastructure for 2015-16, an extra $200-million for the jobs fund and $9-billion from the sale of 60% of Hydro One. The province is also pledging to reach a balance budget by 2017-18 with a current deficit of $10.9-billion.