Welland Canal on agenda during meetings in Ottawa
Mayor met with federal officials
Infrastructure, brownfield lands, and the Welland Canal were on the agenda when Welland’s top officials met with federal ministers and ministries last week in Ottawa.
“It was two days of meetings,” said Mayor Frank Campion of the trip.
He, along with chief administrative officer Gary Long and director of economic development Dan Degazio, met with Marc Garneau, minister of transport; the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) — Green Municipal Fund; Transport Canada, Real Property Division; Office of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Development — FEDDEV; Office of the Minister of Procurement with responsibility for Canada Post; Office of the Minister of Infrastructure; and Niagara Centre MP Vance Badawey MP.
“Our first meeting was with Minister Garneau and we talked about the Welland Canal, specifically the working canal,” Campion said.
The mayor said the Rose City was once recognized as a place where rail and water met but added that concept fell off the table years ago.
“We still have rail and water and we know his (Garneau’s) office is working on trying to streamline the movement of goods through Canada. There are possibly opportunities on our canal. We’re well positioned to be part of it.”
Campion said with Transport Canada looking to divest lands along the canal, there are areas the city is interested in acquiring and possible partnering with others.
“There are a variety of opportunities … we could have a dock or port in the city,” he said, adding the city does have some concepts of what could happen along the canal.
He said it would be a real boost to Welland’s economy.
During the two days in the nation’s capital city, the trio also met with FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities) officials to keep up an already established relationship.
The city has dealt with the
agency and obtained funds through the green municipal fund for brownfield redevelopment.
“We received some money this year and we have more plans and more ideas for other brownfield sites. We’re really pushing for our brownfields to be turned into usable pieces of land.”
Campion said a meeting was held with Canada Post to discuss the former post office on King Street, just north of Division Street.
“It’s a beautiful building and we’d like to be able to do something with it,” he said, adding the city would like to see it declared surplus by the Crown corporation.
Finding more funding to promote francophone tourism opportunities or the francophone community in Welland, in general, was on the agenda for the trio.
With a $20 million gap in infrastructure funding for things like water and sewer lines and roads, Campion said the three men also paid a visit to Infrastructure Canada to talk about and learn what funding sources were available.
“We have aging infrastructure and without upper-level government help, we couldn’t do certain things. They (Infrastructure Canada) have been very co-operative and we’ve been doing very well.”
Campion said Badawey was very helpful and was in on some of the meetings the city held with the various officials.
“We were quite busy … we tried to maximize our time there.”