By: Michael Bennett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Ridgetown Independent News
The Municipality of Chatham-Kent plans to be at the front of the line when several provincial funding opportunities become available.
The 2026 Ontario Budget: A Plan to Protect Ontario includes major funding for sports and recreation facilities, rural transportation and aging water infrastructure – all major needs in Chatham-Kent.
“That’s very good news for us, because I believe we will have projects that will qualify,” said Mayor Darrin Canniff. “On a high-level scale, we will be applying for anything and everything we remotely qualify for.”
“That’s partly why the role of Deputy CAO (was created) to make sure we are applying potentially to every application possible,” Canniff said.
Dave Taylor was named the municipality’s first Deputy Chief Administration Officer in April 2026.
As part of its 2026 budget, the Ontario government announced an expansion of its Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund, investing $300 million to build and upgrade sport and recreation facilities across the province, bringing the total government funding for the program to $500 million.
Chatham-Kent Council approved the Parks and Recreation Master Plan at its Dec. 15 meeting, which includes enhancing and expanding services as well as revitalizing and building new facilities over the next 10 years.
The largest proposed recreation project is an 80-acre site in Chatham that would house two or four ice pads, a gymnasium, an indoor pool, an indoor artificial pitch and four outdoor multi-use fields for $160-million.
Chatham-Kent has been trying to secure provincial and federal funding for a new arena complex to replace the aging Memorial and Erickson Arenas in Chatham for over 20 years, with no success.
The municipality will seek provincial and federal funding, as the yet-unfunded project has a completion date of 2035.
The province also announced it would double the Ontario Transit Investment Fund through the 2026 provincial budget, from $5 million to $10 million annually over the next three years.
The $30-million investment will help rural and underserved communities build safe and reliable transit services.
“I’ve seen firsthand how investments through the Ontario Transit Investment Fund are making a meaningful difference for people in our rural communities,” said Steve Pinsonneault, MPP for Lambton-Kent Middlesex. “Expanding access to reliable transportation helps residents get to work, attend appointments, and stay connected to the services they depend on.”
“I’m pleased to see our government doubling this funding, building on that success and ensuring even more communities can benefit from safe, dependable transit options,” said Pinsonneault, a former Chatham-Kent Ward 3 Councillor from Thamesville.
The province is also investing an additional $700 million to help 127 municipalities and First Nations communities upgrade and expand aging water infrastructure.
The funding comes from the province’s Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, which was increased to a total of $4 billion last year to support the province’s goal of getting more shovels in the ground and homes built across Ontario.
The funding will flow to recipients through the MHIP’s Health and Safety Water Stream, which now totals $875 million of the total $4 billion.
Last July, Council approved the Public Utility Commission’s Water and Wastewater Master Plan Review, which includes $780 million in infrastructure needs in southwest Chatham for the installation of water and wastewater lines from the city limits to the 401, and a $200-million upgrade at the Wallaceburg water treatment plant.
Also on the priority list is an estimated $87,601 price tag for improvements to the Southeast Chatham-Kent Water Distribution System, which includes a new elevated water tower in Ridgetown and a new transmission line from Blenheim to bring Lake Erie water to Ridgetown and Highgate to replace their current well water systems.
Small businesses will be getting some tax relief as the provincial government announced a $1.1 billion cut to the small business corporate income tax from 3.2 percent to 2.2 percent, over the next three years.
This tax cut, a 31.25 percent reduction in the existing rate, would provide more than 375,000 Ontario small businesses with up to $5,000 in tax relief each year.
If passed, this tax relief will help small business owners manage rising costs and economic uncertainty amid U.S. tariffs and allow them to reinvest the savings in their businesses.
“Any relief we can give to business – small businesses and large businesses – helps immensely,” Canniff said. “With everything going on south of the border and with tariffs, anything we can do to help businesses through this time is a good thing.”
Meanwhile, Chatham-Kent officials attended the recent Ontario Good Roads Association annual conference in Toronto.
Chatham Ward 6 Councillor Alysson Storey, Director for the Southwest Zone on the Good Roads committee; Ward 1 Councillor Lauren Anderson; and administration officials Ryan Brown, Jordan Gray, Edward Soldo, Dave Taylor and Canniff represented Chatham-Kent.
The contingent met with the Ministry of Transportation during the conference, including Hardeep Singh Grewal, MTO Parliamentary Assistant and MPP, to discuss 401 safety improvements between Chatham-Kent and London, including adding a third lane on both sides from Merlin Road to Col. Talbot Road and a centre median barrier.
“We reminded the group in attendance of our request for an acceleration of continued construction of the concrete median barrier between Merlin and London,” Storey said. “We were thrilled to see the first 11kilometres of concrete barrier completed between Tilbury and Merlin, and now we need to see the rest completed.”
The project will include a complete reconfiguration of the Bloomfield Road interchange, similar to the Communication Road interchange in the late 2010s, which will result in increased traffic on local arterial roads for upwards of 18 months.
Storey said the Bloomfield Road project will need to be completed first, and that will start in the very near future.
Canniff said suggested safety measures on Highway 40 between Chatham and Wallaceburg to the north, and from Chatham to the 401 to the south, were also discussed.
