The Member of Provincial Parliament for Bay of Quinte riding Todd Smith believes good days are ahead for the province of Ontario.
“We’ve completed a lot of our election campaign promises already but of course we have more work to do. Good things are ahead as Ontario is now creating new jobs while other areas of the country are losing jobs. We’re more competitive now and that bodes well for the future.”
Smith is looking forward to some big new infrastructure projects getting underway in 2020. “We have the widening of Bell Boulevard in the area of the casino in Belleville to four lanes and upgrades on King Street near Trenton Memorial Hospital coming. And sometime before spring we’ll be announcing our funding for culture and recreation projects. We’re now working on prioritizing which will get our approval across the province. That’s a lot of work in itself as there were around 1,100 applications for funding in total. Big applications in my riding include the Belleville YMCA and the Quinte Humane Society.”
The approved projects would also need support from federal and municipal governments to go ahead.
Meanwhile, the MPP and cabinet minister continues to work closely with Loyalist College. “Last year we gave colleges some new revenue opportunities so they can improve their programs and facilities and we want to support Loyalist as it continues to teach and train students for the jobs of tomorrow.”
Smith is also hopeful that the provincial funding formula for hospitals will be changed for multi-site operations like Quinte Health Care.
“They’re a well run organization but they need more funding on an annual basis so we don’t have to come up with emergency funding every year to keep them out of deficit.”
