The MP for Cape Breton-Canso says federal funding for Destination Reeves St. is contingent on the project moving ahead in its current form.
Port Hawkesbury town councillors discussed amending their proposal to remove the Reeves St. redesign portion of the project while moving forward with the remaining components Jan. 8; they voted to get more information from their federal and provincial counterparts before they make a decision at their Feb. 5 meeting.
Cape Breton-Canso MP Rodger Cuzner and officials with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency discussed the project with town reps recently.
He says they told town officials they would lose their federal funding for the project if they remove the road diet portion.
Cuzner tells The Hawk federal officials initially supported the project because they felt the redesign of Reeves St. would make it more of a business district.
“That was the rationale for supporting the project,” he says. “If that’s changed in any great way, then we wouldn’t see that as the same project, so the federal funding would fall off as well.”
Cuzner says town officials could re-apply for federal funding, but the current funding was granted through the now-defunct Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation with different criteria, so there’s no guarantee they would be successful.
He says federal officials are behind the project as it currently stands.
“We certainly don’t want to be involved in a project that’s going to tear a community apart,” he says. “If a community can come together and have a project that we can believe in and we want to support, that’s where we sort of shine.”
Cuzner says he believes it’s a worthwhile initiative because the road diet is a pilot project, so if it doesn’t work, things can revert back to the way they were.
