Hamilton is expecting to receive about $5 million from the $380 million federal and provincial recreation stimulus package that was announced Friday.

“We know we are getting about $5 million,” said Mayor Fred Eisenberger.

“We just don’t know what projects will be funded from it. But I think the (funding) is appropriate to what we received in the previous stimulus package.”

The federal and provincial governments announced they will be spending $380 million for 758 recreation projects in Ontario. The federal and provincial governments are both spending $195 million over two years. But local municipalities, say government officials, will have to wait until July 6 for a more detailed breakdown of the funding.

“We are anxiously waiting for the information,” said Mike Zegarac, manager of budgets and finances.

One reason is the deadline for the projects to be completed is the end of March, 2011. He said the two-year construction window is slowly shrinking.

He said finance staff attempted to get more information from both levels of government, but they have been denied. The announcement, said Mr. Zegarac, had been expected earlier in the week.

Hamilton councillors in May approved an application for $84 million to renovate 26 recreation projects. City staff and politicians knew that Hamilton would only receive a fraction of the money, and that only about the top eight projects would be funded, including Allan MacNab Recreation Centre, Sir Wilfrid Laurier Recreation Centre, Turner Sports Field, Hill Park Recreation Centre, Scott Park Arena and Winona Seniors facility expansion.

Mr. Zegarac said Hamilton received some economic infrastructure stimulus funding earlier in the month that also included money for a few recreation projects.

The recreation projects earmarked under the stimulus for Ontario municipalities include 185 arenas, 72 swimming pools, 28 gyms, 96 sports fields, and 179 multi-purpose facilities.