With the recent release of CAA’s Worst Roads list in Ontario, it brought back some topics that have been pressing for some time.

Algonquin West and East remain on the top 10 overall, on a list that is supposed to serve the purpose of showing the provincial government where road funding is much needed.

Now, Stars and Thunder is a month away.

Wow, curveball. How did we get to Stars and Thunder? (By the way, that starts this month!)

Well, like the proverbial “Thanks Obama!” meme directed at blaming former United States President Barack Obama for any shortcomings in the US, any and every local subject over social media gets blamed on the city spending over $4 million dollars on the festival.

As we all know, exactly zero dollars is headed to Timmins from the Ontario government for the 2017 portion of Connecting Link construction.

It led to Timmins city council choosing to take out a $4 million dollar, multi-year debenture to keep the city on track with their 10-year plan.

(We’ll get to planned road construction later.)

So with Algonquin West and East being named to the Worst Roads list again, it opened up the discussion on why Timmins didn’t get funding and on our Facebook pages, there were people trying to tie Stars and Thunder to it.

Could it be time where now it’s just becoming ridiculous? Timmins Mayor Steve Black thinks so.

When Rogers Radio mentioned the tie in—which let’s be honest, at this point, wasn’t really anything new to the Mayor—Black was blunt.

“I’ll call it what it is…totally misinformed and not factual,” he responded, adding later on that it’s just “life in politics. There’s always going to be those that criticize things that we do.”

“I know a few of the people, the reception last year after the funding wasn’t the best but we had the discussion why with the MTO and they’re all different funds,” Black noted, “To say we’re not getting funds for this because we’re doing a festival that the province funded partly is just ridiculous.”

He went on to explain the rationale the MTO used to delve out this year’s Connecting Link dollars, recognizing the sheer magnitude of work Timmins still needs.

But just as a reminder, Black continued: “(The MTO) let us know that they had many small communities with small projects that they wanted to try and get completed and off the list and allocate this year’s dollars to that,” he said.

“Because instead of having 50-60 communities trying to apply for the limited pot every year, they want to try and knock off as many of the small ones and then they know they need to reconfigure things to address Timmins, which is a much bigger project when you’re dealing with a $120 million dollar project, and there’s a $3 million dollar max (for Connecting Link funding applications per year).”

$25 million was given out for 2017-18 to 19 municipalities.

A $30 million pot is expected for 2018-19 applications.

Black says even then, the government knows that isn’t good enough for an important Connecting Link roadway in the province. And when it comes to the local road, they need to take a unique approach to it.

“But we’re also cognizant that there is 77 municipalities with Connecting Links that are applying for the limited $25 million dollars of funds available, and that we’re not going to get funds to the most every year,” Black says, “Last year, we got the most funding in the province. There wasn’t a city in Ontario that got more Connecting Link funding than we did and some of those discussions were on.”

Technically he’s not wrong, Timmins did get the maximum.

But so did Aylmer, Chatham-Kent, Cornwall and Pembroke.  That’s $15 million out of the 20 for 2016-17 and 23 communities received funding.  While that is more than the 19 that got funding this year, keep in mind only Renfrew got the maximum this time, with Hearst and Champlain coming close.

Now back to the tie in with the festival. Black says the province is in support of it and have even granted dollars to help out. He even hinted at a future announcement.

“We’ll probably have some more good news announced through a provincial channel in terms of what that has brought to the region in the near future,” he said.

And it’s not just the government either.

“Most of the provincial tourism agencies are promoting it as one of the top events for the summer, and we know they’re quite excited about it as well and happy that we’re celebrating Ontario’s 150th birthday in the manner that they hope to see,” Black added.

There was also the recent release of Northeastern Travel’s Top 5 Northeastern Ontario Festivals and Events. Stars and Thunder appears to have topped the list, though we’re not sure if it was put in a particular order.

National recognition came about as well, in the form of Expedia.ca’s Top 17 Canadian Cities to Visit in 2017. It also should be mentioned it got into the ears of hockey fans too when Rogers Hometown Hockey co-hosts Ron MacLean and Tara Slone made mention of it back in November from the McIntyre Arena.

“We know the word is getting out there that Timmins is going to have a great festival, and we hope residents come out and enjoy it,” Black added, “And we know there’s over 3,000 people from out of town that are coming in to enjoy some aspect of the festival. It’s going to be a great week and a great event for the city.”

“And I’m confident that it has very little to do with any road funding project in the city,” he concluded.

So there it is. Stars and Thunder goes June 24th to July 1st at Hollinger Park.  Go to StarsAndThunder.com for details.

This isn’t meant to downplay anybody that can neither afford a ticket for themselves or their family, nor anyone with legitimate concerns over the city taking a chance with taxpayer dollars.  We’re not here to defend the decision of putting on the festival itself.

Simply put, if you’re going to argue against the festival, at least be smart about it and present valid points.  Just throwing randomness out on a public forum for everyone—locals and tourists alike—to see makes a mockery of the people presenting said valid points.

If you have a legitimate, common sense way to save money on the festival at this stage, your best bet is to talk to a city councillor or the Mayor.

There’s only two council meetings from now until the festival, and one of them is this coming Tuesday.

While the numbers don’t seem too promising after the Mayor said during the May 23rd council meeting—Item 4F on the webcast—we’re around $1 million dollars short, the festival is happening whether we like it or not.

The work is being put in, contracts are signed, it’s a mere three weeks away.

No amount of complaints is going to change it at this point.  We’re sure to get an update on where things stand at Tuesday’s meeting.

Yes, you can continue to make your voices heard, that’s the beauty of a democratic society and the freedom of posting to social media.

But if the festival’s going to sink, it’s going to sink.  We can address the outrage and the “I told you so’s” afterwards. If it’s going to be a success, it’s going to be a success.

Either way, sinking ships and/or fireworks—in this case, literal fireworks for eight days—are mesmerizing to look at.

So whatever your views are on the festival, the city likely won’t see this kind of exposure for a long while.

But that’s just me.

…oh, forgot something. Planned road construction.

It’s not to say Black isn’t disappointed in having to get a debenture to do Phase 2 of the Connecting Link this summer. He knows they can’t put it off and needs to be done, with or without the province.

There’s no timetable on when this year’s construction will start.  But just for comparison-sake, last year’s construction got underway around the first week of July.

Now, CAA didn’t just house both stretches of Algonquin on their list this year.

Theriault Boulevard in the north end of town got recognized at the #5 spot among roads in Northern Ontario. This road receives just as much chatter with its consistent potholes and further legitimizes the 40km/h speed limit placed there for being in a school zone.

Black says it’s a road he’s expressed his frustration with, acknowledging it as a road on a “very key corridor through our community.”

He has good news though, plans are underway to get it fixed.

“The engineering design work’s is being done this year,” Black added, “And the plan is if it goes as planned and council approves next year’s phase of roads, that will be one of the ones that is reconstructed in the spring of 2018.”

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