Minister John Yakabuski MPP Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke visited Barry’s Bay on July 26 to announce that Ontario has nominated the Paugh Lake Road rehabilitation project for review in the federal Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP). Members of Madawaska Valley Council and municipal staff were on site to greet Yakabuski. Above photo from left: (front) Mayor Kim Love, MPP John Yakabuski, CAO/Clerk Suzanne Klatt, Councillor Carl Bromwich (rear) Operations Manager Hilary Kutchkoskie and Operations Supervisor Mike Phillips
Yakabuski said the province had approved the application for rehabilitation of 11.7 km of Paugh Lake Road as Laurie Scott, Minister of Infrastructure, had designated the project for review by the federal government under ICIP. He said that Ontario’s contribution will be $1,040,000 towards the $3.121 million project. Yakabuski explained that ICIP involves shared responsibility:
- 40 percent contribution from the federal government
- 33.3 percent contributed by the province
- 26.7 percent comes from the municipality
Click BELOW for a brief video of the announcement.
Mayor Kim Love thanked Yakabuski and said this demonstrates that the province recognizes this is a vital infrastructure program. She described Paugh Lake Road as “an important artery for attracting tourism and promoting the economic vitality of our rural area.” She said if the ICIP application is approved by the federal government, the municipality will be able to complete the entire 11.7 km in the next two years. She said the project would otherwise have taken MV up to ten years to do the work in stages.
MV resident Cheryl Dunlop Reid, District 6 Governor for the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC), agreed with Love about the importance of Paugh Lake Road in this region as a direct route to Pembroke. She reminded Yakabuski about the OFSC’s recently-released study The Economic Impact of Snowmobiling in Ontario which calculated Visitor Spending in this region during last winter at $99,458,752.
Dunlop Reid told The Current that as a resident who reaches her home via Paugh Lake Road, the project is important. She said, “I think it increases the visibility of our community for sure.” She added, “Obviously [the road] needs to be done. It is a logging road and we must not lose sight of that. It has to be built to a standard that can handle the logging trucks…. I don’t mind sharing the road with the loggers.”
When asked by The Current how soon the municipality will get a response, Yakabuski said the federal government is expected to “move quickly” from this stage. The Paugh Lake Road project is one of six applications in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke that have gone forward for federal review under ICIP.