Dufferin County councillors have decided to spend the gasoline tax money from Ottawa in their own backyards.

Councillors approved a notice of motion last Thursday night that was put forward at the May meeting by Orangeville Deputy Mayor Jim MacGregor and was seconded by Shelburne Mayor Ed Crewson. The decision will mean an election-year windfall of tens of thousands of dollars to the lower tier municipalities.

The county received close to half a million dollars in 2005 from the federal

government for their share of the gas tax allocation. The money has been sitting in reserve and the county will receive a similar amount in 2006. With Thursday night's vote, however, that money will now be transferred to Dufferin's eight municipalities.

In the wake of pressure from the Canadian association of municipalities, the federal government decided last year to distribute some of the money received from its gasoline taxes directly to the municipalities to help pay for environmentally sustainable

infrastructure, or items like roads, bike lanes and waste diversion. The money is distributed provincially by the municipal association and Ontario divides the money 50:50 between the upper and lower tier municipalities.

The motion councillors considered Thursday night said in part, "all of the lower tier municipalities in Dufferin County have very significant infrastructure improvement deficits pertaining to infrastructure that is not the responsibility of the County of Dufferin."

The county then made the towns and townships of Dufferin eligible recipients of the gas tax money and decreed that a similar bylaw will be passed annually over the term of the agreement with the federal government.

With the passage of the motion the monies will be allocated based on the municipality's current contribution to the county. Orangeville will receive about $500,000, or a little more than half of the twoyear grant, while Shelburne will receive about $80,000 for 2005 and 2006.