Regional district says wait was expected for federal government’s infrastructure funds

NEWS — The delayed federal New Building Canada Plan has come under criticism from some municipal politicians for being so late out of the gate it’s causing problems with construction schedules and project deadlines.

That’s not much of an issue for the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, says administrator Sukh Gill.

Delays between programs ending and new ones starting up, which is the case with the federal infrastructure fund, are common, he said today (Wednesday).

His staff have looked at what’s been happening with the fund and they estimate there won’t be any approvals until late summer or early fall.

The TNRD does have some significant water projects to submit applications for when the fund does start taking submissions, he said.

They aren’t urgent, but the sooner the better, said Gill.

Gill commended Ottawa for setting aside $1 billion of the $14 billion for the infrastructure fund to go specifically to communities with populations of 100,000 or less.

However, he didn’t know the magnitude of how many communities in Canada that would apply to or how much they would be seeking in infrastructure grants, so he couldn’t say whether the amount is adequate.