QUEEN’S PARK – In the Ontario Legislature Tuesday, Tim Hudak, MPP for Niagara West-Glanbrook, expressed his disappointment to the McGuinty Government that the Town of Pelham was cut out of the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) this year; and he called for the immediate restoration of Pelham’s provincial grant.

The Town of Pelham was recently made aware that it would not receive a dime from $18.8 million in annual OMPF grants distributed by the Ministry of Finance. For the past several years, the Town received an OMPF allocation of $26,000; however, it received nothing this year while other municipalities across the province received their grant allocations as usual.

“(The Town of Pelham) found out by way of press release that funding now has been eliminated altogether,” Hudak said. “No word from the Minister's office, no explanation, simply when the grant list was released publicly, Pelham discovered they were off the list.”

During debate in the Ontario Legislature Tuesday, Hudak questioned why Pelham was left off the OMPF grant list, arguing that Pelham deserves its fair share of provincial funding, which should even exceed the $26,000 it was previously receiving.

Hudak called on the Premier to immediately clear up the oversight that robbed Pelham of much needed provincial funding. He also spoke personally with Jim Watson, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, yesterday and asked that he help to restore Pelham’s OMPF grant.

“I think Pelham's rurality should be recognized by this funding formula. It currently fails to do so,” Hudak said in the Legislature. “At the very least, (the Premier must) make sure they get the same amount of money they received in previous fiscal years.”

Hudak has consistently said that, as greenbelt communities, towns like Pelham, Lincoln and West Lincoln should receive additional provincial funds because their ability for development has been frozen.