EDITORIAL: Chatham-Kent’s unique challenge

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The challenge that Chatham-Kent has in securing more provincial infrastructure funding is not new. Since its amalgamation in 1998, the municipality has struggled to reconcile the sometimes-competing issues that dominate its urban and rural communities. Many of these involve the cost of maintaining roads, bridges and drainage systems in rural Chatham-Kent.

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And yet, ironically, Chatham-Kent is unable to leverage some provincial money because it is not recognized as a rural municipality. Its population is just over 100,000 persons, and so it is deemed, according to provincial rules, as an urban municipality.

Chatham-Kent officials hope to make a case for bending those provincial rules. Elected and administrative representatives – while attending the Association of Municipalities of Ontario convention this week – are hoping to convince provincial officials that Chatham-Kent has fallen between the cracks. It is uniquely both an urban and a rural municipality, the only one of its kind in Southern Ontario. But because of that distinction, it qualifies for some provincial funding, but is unable to qualify for others.

The challenge faced by Chatham-Kent is unusual. It has hundreds of rural bridges within its domain, and each of these are immensely costly to repair and replace. It has thousands of kilometres of drainage ditches, and these, also, require regular maintenance and repair. Chatham-Kent also has a network of rural roads that require the same level of dedicated attention.

At the same time, our municipality is challenged with the ongoing infrastructure needs of Chatham and a half dozen smaller communities, all of which held city, town or village status before 1998.

There is no other municipality in Southern Ontario like this. For purposes of comparison, only Sudbury and Thunder Bay face the same problem, and they are in Northern Ontario. Both have municipal jurisdiction over a vast expanse of rural area, but also have a population of over 100,000.

To be sure, there are other parts of Ontario that seem to find a balance between the rural and urban needs of their communities. But all of them have a county or regional government in place. But the county government that served the former Kent County was abolished 25 years ago.

Should Chatham-Kent officials find a measure of success at the AMO convention this week, it could mean, for the future, additional funding in the millions of dollars, money that is not made available right now because of Chatham-Kent unique municipal status in Ontario.

-Peter Epp