FONOMThe Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities is pleased with a few recent major provincial announcements.

FONOM President Al Spacek says the extension and expansion of the spring bear hunt pilot program makes a lot of sense for public safety and economic reasons.

The province has extended the hunt by five years through 2020 and will include all 88 wildlife management units that currently have a fall bear hunt,  along with non-resident hunters.

Meantime, the province has tripled the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund from $100-million to $300-million a year.

Spacek says there is some annual funding in this announcement as well, so municipalities will know what they’re getting and they can plan for that on an annual basis.

He also says the Connecting Links program is going up from $15-million a year to $30-million.