The Solutions: Northern and rural Ontario infrastructure investment strategy

Over the next five years, Ontario will invest approximately $1.8 billion to renew and expand highways in northern Ontario.

• The province will accelerate work on Highway 69 between Parry Sound and Sudbury and on Highway 11 between Huntsville and North Bay.

• Sections of Highway 17 east of Sault Ste. Marie, and Highways 11/17 west of Thunder Bay - important links for east-west traffic across the North - will also be expanded.

• The government will invest a total of $1.1 billion to rehabilitate the existing northern highway system, including its numerous bridges.

• To enhance northern commerce with the U.S., Ontario, Canada and the City of Sault Ste. Marie are improving the road system in the city to provide better access from the Trans-Canada Highway to the U.S. border crossing.

• The government will also continue to fund long-standing programs such as remote airports, winter roads and the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, which provide essential services to remote and northern parts of the province.

• As part of its Northern Prosperity Plan, the government has renewed its commitment to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund and to a renewed corporate mandate focusing on private-sector job creation and community infrastructure initiatives.

• The government has funded expansion and improvements at universities and community colleges across northern Ontario, and this year will open the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. The medical school is a unique institution with campuses in Sudbury and Thunder Bay that will train doctors to work in remote and rural communities.

• Through the Canada-Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund, Ontario and its partners are making $900 million available to smaller communities to improve roads and bridges, water and wastewater infrastructure, and solid waste-management facilities. These, together with the components of the government's Strong Rural Communities plan, will strengthen economic linkages between Ontario's rural and urban centres.

• Through the Ontario Strategic Infrastructure Financing Authority (OSIFA), the government is making it possible for small communities to borrow money for necessary infrastructure investments at lower rates and under better terms.