Ontario announces more money for multiple Sudbury projects

Minister of Northern Development Greg Rickford was in Sudbury on Monday making some big promises in regards to funding.

Whether it was $100,000 or $2,000,000, Minister of Northern Development Greg Rickford made some big promises for the City of Greater Sudbury on Monday.

"These are key investments that help Greater Sudbury and what I like to say is 'it’s day-to-day pieces for local residents,' but certainly will build up capacity for a vibrant Sudbury in the future," he said following his second announcement of the day.

First, and with the biggest price tag, was a $2,000,000 announcement for the Maley Drive and Frood Road Roundabout Project.

"[It] will serve as a diversion for some of the heavier traffic related to mining and forestry," Rickford said. "The certainty of that funding will give them the flexibility over the next five years to top up specific, and sometimes many small but important projects that city finances and other infrastructure programs from other levels of government simply don’t address."

The city is receiving $400,000 annually, through the Northern Ontario Resource Development Support Fund, over five years to help complete the roundabout, which Deputy Mayor Al Sizer said was the plan all along.

Intersection of Frood Road and Lasalle Boulevard. April 4/22 (Alana Pickrell/CTV Northern Ontario)

"It was not completed as planned when we did the original Maley Drive expansion, so now, this will top up our original plans to complete that," he said.

Adding that it is going to be a huge asset to residents and the city once it’s complete.

"Peak times… peak traffic times, you do get a pinch point there coming off (Highway) 144 onto the Lasalle extension. So this will alleviate a lot of congestion at that point and allow the trucks also, the heavy trucks, to continue on," Sizer said.

Following the road infrastructure announcement, Rickford switched locations and gears to announce funding for economic development in Sudbury.

YES Theatre is receiving $750,000 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation to build the new Theatre Refettorio downtown, which officials said is welcomed news.

"One of our goals at YES Theatre is to become one of the largest musical theatre festivals in the country," said Scott Denniston, the general manager and executive producer at YES Theatre.

"With the addition of the Refettorio, it’s sort of a trifecta. So we have the Sudbury Theatre Centre, where we are now, we have Place des Arts, and then this will be our third alternative venue."

Kivi Park Community Foundation is also receiving $502,500 for a trail expansion project that will see a 15.9-kilometre multi-use trail be completed around Crowley Lake and Linton Lake in Sudbury's South End area.

Lastly, $105,395 is going to Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l’Ontario to build a French River Youth, Economic and Community Development Centre.

"Our communities are growing now," said Rickford. "We anticipant there will be further growth […] Sudbury is one of our flagship cities and is continually growing and feeling the boom that we all see now."

With this funding announcement, both YES Theatre and the city said they hope to have shovels in the ground in the coming weeks.