COVID-19 Update for October 28 2020 – 2:30pm
Today, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced more than $1 billion to support long-term care, education and municipal infrastructure projects.
COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure Funding
The Premier said applications are now being accepted to tap into $1.05 billion in combined federal-provincial funding through the new COVID-19 Resilience infrastructure stream to build or renovate health and safety-related projects in the long-term care, education and municipal sectors. The funding includes $700 million for shovel-ready education projects, $250 million for municipal infrastructure and $100 million for the long-term care sector.
Not only will these projects help make Ontarians safer during the ongoing pandemic, but also they will help create jobs and spur economic recovery, Ford said.
Eligible projects under the COVID-19 Resilience stream will fall under four main categories:
- Community, recreation, health and education renovations (e.g. retrofits, repairs or upgrades to long-term care homes, publicly funded schools and co-located childcare centre facilities, recreation centres or shelters);
- COVID-19 response infrastructure (e.g. heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, new builds or renovations to enable physical distancing);
- Active transportation (e.g. parks, trails); and
- Disaster mitigation, adaptation or remediation (e.g. flood mitigation).
Projects must begin by September 30, 2021, and be completed by December 31, 2021.
A news release on the announcement can be found here.