Heather Wright/The Independent

It must seem like the movie Groundhog Day for politicians in Brooke-Alvinston.

As municipal government around Lambton County receive word they’ll receive more cash from the province by way of the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund grant, Brooke-Alvinston is again receiving less.

The municipality will receive $373,200 in 2026, $24,500 less than 2025 and a six per cent cut in cash.

That’s a far cry from the $1.63 million it received in 2013, before successive provincial governments started cutting transitional funding to small municipalities.

Last year, it appeared after 11 years of reductions the tide was turning as funding stabilized.

But Oct. 31, the province released the allocations and Brooke-Alvinston was in the red again.

Mayor Dave Ferguson is frustrated, saying the grant is complicated and no one can really explain why his community continually faces reduced funding.

In fact, he says, the province doesn’t even want to talk about it any more. Two years ago, it boosted the provincial spending on OMPF to $600 million – the same amount that was in the fund in 2013.

But larger municipalities are consistently getting more cash each year.

Ferguson would like to sit down with provincial politicians and figure it out but “there were so many delegations to talk about OMPF that they won’t take a delegation anymore to talk about it. 

“You have to discuss other topics, and maybe the answer that you have to sneak it in it, I tried to right, but they will not discuss it.”

Ferguson plans a meeting with the local MPP on the subject.

And there are others that have questions. 

Dawn-Euphemia will get slightly more this year than last $280,600 up $18,000. But Mayor Al Broad notes they used to receive about $1.2 million. 

“There was a transitional funding. And that was the area that we got the most money from, most true rural municipalities,” he said noting that’s what the government is chopping away. 

“The true rural municipalities were the ones that needed it,” says Broad.

Since 2013, Brooke-Alvinston’s treasurer estimates the municipality has lost over $9,959,200 cumulatively which has to be made up through cuts or tax increases.