L to R: Municipal Economic Development Officer Bill Greenway, Councillor Donna Molloy, Mayor Phil Vinet, Advisory Committee members Catherine Mocherie and Andrew Johnson (Chair), Kenora MP Greg Rickford, Councillor Debra Shushack, and Councillor Ken Forsythe.


RED LAKE, Ontario — Greg Rickford, Member of Parliament for Kenora, on behalf of the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for FedNor, today announced a multi-million dollar Government of Canada investment, aimed at providing a solid foundation for economic recovery and development efforts across Northern Ontario.

Up to $31.4M will be invested through the Community Adjustment Fund (CAF), one of several initiatives introduced as part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan. It is the government's intention to support a total of 55 projects in communities across Northern Ontario that are struggling with the effects of the global economic downturn.

“Our government is taking action to help strengthen Northern Ontario’s economy,” said Minister Clement. “This $31.4M investment through the Community Adjustment Fund, delivers on our commitment to develop a competitive and diversified economy, create jobs and ensure long-term growth and prosperity throughout the region.”

MP Rickford announced that the Municipality of Red Lake has been selected for CAF funding totalling $650,000 toward building a recycling waste transfer station, hazardous waste collection depot, and landfill sorting/waster transfer and composting area. Ear Falls will receive funding for two projects: $354,165 to build a new community health centre that will include a dental and medical clinic and $96,730 toward a marketing campaign to increase awareness of the community to attract investment. And, Pikangikum First Nation will receive $691,000 toward the building of a post secondary training and education facility. In addition, 9 other projects worth about $4.3M will be supported in the Kenora riding (see attached information sheet).

“These initiatives are local priorities that will address local needs and enable the communities in this area to expand, attracting business and creating jobs,” added MP Rickford.

“Your contribution, the provincial contribution and our Municipal contribution is going to see a million-dollar investment right here. It’s going to put people to work, it’s going to create the environment that our ratepayers need to preserve and it’s about time because we need to turn this place around. We’ve got to get more life out of this place and this is a wise use of money once again,” commented Mayor Vinet.

“Having a transfer station and the ability to sort by commodities will enable us to sort out the newspapers, the plastics, the cardboards and so on and so forth. Once that is done, we’ll be looking at the Tire Stewardship program and we’re going to get in to E-waste so hopefully, at the end of the day, the Municipality of Red Lake will be a showcase of environmental protection,” concluded Mayor Vinet.

Before funding can be issued as part of CAF, proponents of selected projects must meet the terms and conditions set out in their CAF agreement. Over the next week, a complete list of CAF projects will be made available online at: http://ic.gc.ca/caf.

A complete list of FedNor funded projects is available at: http://ic.gc.ca/fednor.