CORNWALL, Ontario – In a virtual update with media on Tuesday, June 2, Eric Duncan, Conservative MP for Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry said that he was consulting with local municipalities on financial struggles they might be facing because of COVID-19.
“I’ve been keeping in contact with all of the Mayors and CAOs,” Duncan said. “We are tracking what their financial situation looks like.”
Duncan explained that sources of concern were lack of revenue from transit, deferments of property tax payments, and a lack of revenue from cancelled recreation programs.
Duncan was somewhat critical of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent funding announcement of $2.2 billion for municipalities that was made on June 1, pointing out that that was not new money, but rather an advance on the next gas tax payment that municipalities were owed anyway.
A particular area of concern for Duncan was around the building and maintenance of municipal infrastructure.
“Whenever infrastructure programs come out, we need to make sure there is a timely response,” he said. “We can’t have applications in and waiting a year if it is stimulus and it is going to be used to get the economy back and going. it is a bit of a passion of mine being a former Mayor and that is one of my priorities.”
