LITTLE CURRENT—The Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands has been approved for $907,887 in funding under the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program’s Housing-Enabled Core Servicing Stream Projects. The province announced the funding on September 19.
“This is 50 percent funding that will enable us to extend Cockburn Street up to Manitowaning Road,” said Northeast Town CAO Dave Williamson. “We have submitted an application to the federal government for additional funding that can be stacked with these funds and we are waiting to hear back on that. This funding will enable us to expand the inventory of serviced residential lots in the town in order to encourage additional housing development.”
The Cockburn Street project was listed under the 2025 budget as the most costly of the budgeted items, most specifically the survey, engineering and construction of the street for future development to the tune of $1.5 million. This, Mr. Williamson explained to council at the time, however, would not come to fruition without outside funding sources. “We are looking at funding to encourage building there,” Mr. Williamson said Cockburn Street is currently a dead-end street that runs from Highway 540 near the western reaches of Little Current limits. It is the municipality’s hope to have Cockburn Street extended to Manitowaning Road (Highway 6) just south of Highway 6 Service Centre.
“There are blocks of property there,” Mr. Williamson told The Expositor. “If divided effectively, we would be looking at 24 new lots.”
“We have done the initial grubbing and expect to get the engineering done during the winter with a construction start date in the spring/summer of 2026,” Mr. Williamson said.
