Essa council wants more federal funding
By Richard Blanchard

Essa township, like all other Ontario municipalities, has a post-Christmas wish that the federal government will open up its coffers and provide funding for a number of projects in 2008.

Last month, township mayor Dave Guergis told council that he had recently met with staff of Simcoe Grey MP's Helena Guergis, to discuss future funding.

Guergis said that he and township staff had discussed the success of the COMRIF program, which saw the province and the federal government provide one third each for major construction projections.

Under the plan, the local municipality provided the remaining third of the project.

"That worked out well for us," said Guergis. "I understand that the federal government is willing to embark on a similar program next year and is just waiting on the provincial government to sign on board."

Guergis said that he emphasized during the meeting the need for the federal government to understand the costs of applying for some of the programs.

"I told the staff that with one program, we needed major engineering costs in order to complete the application. We only received a small portion of those costs back when we were awarded the grant. We were only given 13 per cent of the costs."

Township CAO Greg Murphy noted that that the federal government's Gas Tax Rebate program has worked out well for the township.

Funds from the program are being used towards the construction of the new salt and sand storage building at the municipal garage on County Road 56.