Larry O’Brien

OTTAWA-Mayor Larry O’Brien welcomes today’s announcement, by Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities John Baird, aimed at creating jobs and stimulating the economy with $4 billion in new infrastructure spending.

Earlier this month the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) released a list of 1,000 construction-ready infrastructure projects in preparation for the upcoming federal budget. These infrastructure projects range from simple rehabilitation to major new construction and would create over 150,000 jobs across Canada.

“The City of Ottawa needs be in the best possible position to take advantage of this new funding from the federal government as soon as it becomes available in order to maintain and repair the City’s existing infrastructure, support local industries and create jobs in the community,” said Mayor O’Brien.

Last week the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee directed staff to work with members of Council to develop a comprehensive, priority list of all ready-to-go City projects, including public transit, to be approved by Council on February 11th, 2009. This list of projects has the potential to create over 6,000 new jobs in the City of Ottawa.

“I’m pleased to see that the federal government is working to accelerate the application process in order to get the projects completed in our community as quickly as possible in 2009 and 2010,” said Mayor O’Brien. “This provides us with the opportunity to help our economy now and it is our responsibility to ensure we are ready to benefit from this new investment.”