THUNDER BAY -- The gas tax is pumping $1.8 million into Thunder Bay's transit system.
Ontario's Gas Tax Program, now totaling nearly $19 million over the past decade for the city, must go into a municipality's transit system. City transit manager Brad Loroff said while the city pays the lion's share of its transit system, the gas tax funding plays a critical role from assets to infrastructure itself in the system.
"We utilize the funds to just try and make things better for passengers as a whole," he said.
MPP Bill Mauro (Lib., Thunder Bay-Atikokan) said on top of the direct benefits from the funding, the program also helped bring 1,200 jobs to Bombardier through contracts with the city of Toronto.
"It's just a really really big pice here for us in the city for a couple of different reasons," he said Thursday morning where Mauro and MPP
Michael Gravelle (Lib., Thunder Bay-Superior North) made the announcement.
While the funding depends on how much people bought at the pumps, it was announced as a permanent program in 2013.
"It helps them in terms of their longterm planning," Mauro said.
Gravelle said he was also happy to see other places like Greenstone, which got $5,000, and Schreiber and Terrace Bay, which received more than $21,000 take advantage of the funding.
"It's great to see," he said.
