Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) is looking push for more advocacy for increased funding from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) in its First Nations Road Program.
The MTO First Nations Road Program offers annual funding to First Nations communities for expenses related to roads and bridge maintenance during a calendar year. Six Nations receives $551,400 each calendar year for road and bridge maintenance. At the Feb. 6 general finance meeting, SNEC discussed the 2022 funding and the petition to receive the funds was passed for the 2022 funding amount of $551,400.
Six Nations Director of Public Works Michael Montour said that SNEC would need to document its expenses from roads and bridge maintenance to receive the funding. Montour added that to be eligible to receive the funds, SNEC must also claim double to the amount of total funding for the year. Montour said that Six Nations claimed $1,750,870 in roads and bridge maintenance in 2022.
Montour acknowledged that since he began as director of Public Works 11 years ago, the amount of funding has only increased once after much advocacy was done to boost the funding by the MTO.
Six Nations Chief Mark Hill said more advocacy is needed to ensure Six Nations receives a feasible amount for the roads' needs.
"This is actually part of our further advocacy work that we have to do politically in order to see as many repairs and resurfacing done for our roads," he said.
"As we know, roads have been quite an issue over this past season, and, obviously, going into the spring they're not going to get any better. So we have to, obviously, double or triple this funding in order to do these roads in a one time kind of manner," he added.
Coun. Nathan Wright suggested charging industrial trucks a toll for using the community's roads.
"A lot of it has to do with the large trucks that are here. I'm wondering if we can look at an option for having those large trucks pay a toll as they come on," Wright said.
Montour stated that those talks have not been brought up but mentioned that it could be something Chief Hill could bring to the federal government.
"To Nathan's (Wright) point in regards to the damage to the roads. I know that that might be a good point to bring up in your (Chief Hill's) conversations with the feds," Montour said.
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