Murillo’s industrial park is about to get bigger.
MPP Bill Mauro (Lib., Thunder Bay-Atikokan) announced $534,000 for the Municipality of Oliver Paipoonge to expand Rubin Business Park in Murillo by 40 acres.
There are already about 10 businesses in the park, but this expansion will another 11 to set up shop in the area.
“We have 10 lots of various sizes both commercial and industrial ready to go,” said Mayor Lucy Kloosterhuis. “They’ve been surveyed, registered and the utilities are going in very shortly.”
Not only will more businesses mean more municipal land taxes for the community, but it will mean more jobs.
“You would have 11 businesses hiring people, supplying employment not just for our residents but residents of the region. Right now that’s what we need,” said Kloosterhuis.
One business has already moved into Rubin Business Park and another two companies have expressed interest.
The funding will be used to pay for infrastructure needs for the park like sewer, hydro and roads.
The municipality will be putting in near-matching funds and Kloosterhuis said they also received money from FedNor.
Mauro said without help from the province, many smaller municipalities like Oliver Paipoonge wouldn’t be able to update infrastructure needs.
“It’s really out of balance, especially when they don’t have any business contained in their municipalities,” he said. “It becomes really quite unmanageable.”
“Some of these projects are just impossible to fund off of the residential property tax base. If the province doesn’t step in to help, often times they just cannot do it and you end up with some unsafe conditions,” he added.
With the expansion of the industrial park, Mauro said that will mean business growth for the area, which will help mitigate the dependence on the residential tax base.
The funding comes from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.
