The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities is welcoming the return of the provincial Rural Economic Development program.
FONOM President Alan Spacek says after the program was suspended in the 2016 budget and integrated into the Jobs and Prosperity Fund, they were concerned it would result in rural projects competing against larger projects in urban centres.
“We’re very pleased that the province has listened to our concerns, FONOM had contacted, lobbied significantly for the return of that program, as I know many of our members did as well,” he said.
Spacek says the RED program is very helpful in helping smaller communities with any projects that have an economic development component to it.
“Many of the smaller communities, of which that is the majority of our FONOM membership, don’t have the economic development resources to develop some projects on their own,” he added.
The RED program is focused solely on rural community economic development projects that will attract investment, create jobs and boost economic growth in rural communities.