Quinte News continues to look back on the year that was 2025, speaking to a number of local municipal, provincial and federal representatives, as well as community leaders.
We had a chance to speak with Bay of Quinte MPP Tyler Allsopp on his first full year in the position after keeping his seat in the 2025 provincial election.
He said it has been quite the transition from being a councillor to a provincial representative after more than a full year in office.
“You have a lot more infrastructure as a provincial politician, so you have an office with staff, people to help with the calls and the emails, when as a councillor you don’t have those things. So you’re sort of left on your own from that standpoint,” Allsopp tells Quinte News.
“But then you also don’t have sort of a party line as much when you’re a councillor, you can kind of say and do whatever you think and feel. So that was an interesting adjustment for me, but something that I’ve really enjoyed and really been appreciative of.”
Looking back on some of the accomplishments for the riding, Allsopp highlighted some of the local infrastructure funding.
“The City of Quinte West received a million dollars for the urbanization of 2nd Dug Hill Road, which was the largest provincial investment that they had received to date, which was a fantastic one,” Allsopp tells Quinte News.
“Right around the same time, we were able to announce $20 million for County Road 49 which has been an issue since 1998 when it was first downloaded by the province. So getting that funding in place was really important for us.”
Allsopp also highlighted funding for the HART Hub in Belleville announced in January.
“Nineteen million dollars in support over three years to help out with the challenges that we are facing with our unhoused population and people who need assistance getting off the streets. I think that as that materializes over the course of 2026 that’ll be a huge benefit to our community,” Allsopp said.
Other grants and funding announcements that Allsopp touted include hundreds of thousands of dollars in community safety and policing grants, as well as $2 million for the Bloomfield Main Street rehabilitation.
“I was really proud to be able to make the announcement at Quinte Health to enhance the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Treatment Centre there, we know that that continues to be a big problem in our area, and anything that we can do to better support survivors and people who are going through a very traumatic time, I think, is a very meaningful and worthwhile thing to do,” Allsopp said while highlighting some of the other accomplishments for the provincial riding.
One of the main provincial decisions was the banning of speed cameras in Ontario.
While a councillor with the City of Belleville, Allsopp was on the Transportation Committee that oversaw the implementation of the speed camera program in the city.
He tells Quinte News that he has been very clear that Belleville did a good job in how the program was implemented, but as a provincial representative he had to take a look at what’s happening across Ontario.
“What we found is that in too many places, those things weren’t in place. They didn’t have great signage. They were hiding the cameras, things of that nature,” Allsopp said.
“I think without that bonafide public service, in terms of educating the public about the change in speed, then you are effectively just doing a tax grab, something that was a very difficult decision for myself, but ultimately, the province and our government made the decision to ban speed cameras.”
He says the province is now investing in traffic calming measures to prevent speeding.
