(Photo from the 2022 Poole Creek Pathway bridge replacement between Beechfern and Riverbank in Wyldewood.)
The City’s Finance Committee sunk its teeth into a meaty policy document on Tuesday titled “Long Range Financial Plan VI – Tax Supported Capital”.
The staff report and recommendations are meant to help us plan for the cost of building, maintaining, and replacing infrastructure: roads, bridges, community centres, swimming pools, parks, administrative buildings, and so on.
There are three parts of this report that I want to highlight:
- The backlog and cost of repairs
- A new pilot to speed up new road construction in areas like Stittsville
- What the city does with older buildings when they reach end-of-life
The infrastructure backlog
We have a long list of repairs and costs are going up: construction is getting more expensive, new requirements (for example, climate change resilience and accessibility features) are more expensive. Council tends to deferred non-urgent repairs to save money, but you can only do that for so long.
Over the next decade we’re facing a funding gap of about $229-million per year between what’s currently budgeted and what’s needed to catch up. Staff are recommending the use of reserve funds and borrowing money to finance the immediate upkeep.
This will put pressure on the City budget of up to $30-million per year, and Council will have to decide in the next term how to manage that. There’s talk of an infrastructure levy (an extra fee on the property tax bill), but that’s not a given. Council could also choose to reduce spending in other areas or juggle priorities to absorb the extra cost without a levy or at tax increase.
Most cities in Canada and the United States are facing similar infrastructure gaps. (In Canada, the municipal infrastructure deficit is estimated to be at least $150-billion, and every city struggles with funding upkeep.) We need this infrastructure for a functioning, healthy City, but we lack the revenue tools to pay for the maintenance. While municipalities own and maintain about 60% of public infrastructure in the country, we only receive about 8 cents of every tax dollar in revenue.
Groups like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario have been lobbying the provincial and federal governments to introduce fair, predictable funding for infrastructure upkeep.
It’s a pressing issue that we’re going to hear more about in the coming years.
A pilot to speed up new road construction
This is a proposed budgeting and accounting change that should prevent delays where one road project holds up others in the queue.
Often road projects can get caught up in design work or property acquisition that temporarily stops the work. The millions of dollars allocated for that project remain unspent, and the money can’t be reallocated to the next project on the list, even if it’s ready to go.
The new pilot would let the next projects proceed, even if the first project gets held up. To me it’s like when someone is in line at a grocery store with a very full cart, and they let the person behind them with only one item go first. It keeps the line moving, no chokepoints.
If the pilot works, this could speed up a number of near-term transportation projects in Stittsville, including:
- Carp Road expansion
- Stittsville Main Street extension (Maple Grove to Derreen)
- Robert Grant Avenue extension (Hazeldean to Palladium)
- Terry Fox Drive – additional turning lanes (Winchester to Abbott)
- Upgrades to Fernbank Road, Shea Road, and Maple Grove Road including sidewalks
Older buildings at the end of their lifespan
As infrastructure and buildings age out, there should be funding available to replace them – but that hasn’t always been the case. The report recommends creating a new fund for facility replacement, by taking on some more debt and using money from the disposal of old facilities to build new ones.
“Disposal” means that some older buildings and land could eventually be sold, but the intent is to provide similar services in new buildings elsewhere in the community.
In Stittsville, a good example of this is the Pretty Street Community Centre. A few years back, an inspection found that it was infested with mold and deemed too costly to repair. The property is being transferred to a non-profit housing developer, and any proceeds from the sale will be reallocated towards a new project: building a permanent home for the Stittsville Food Bank on Stittsville Main Street.
The public works depot on Maple Grove Road is another facility that is nearing the end of its useful life, and could be sold while its equipment and personnel get consolidated within another public works building nearby – either new or existing.
Closing down a facility is never an easy decision or a first choice. A future councillor will have to work with staff and residents to make responsible decisions that balance finances with emerging community needs.
More information
I’ve picked three elements of the report to highlight here, but there’s a lot more. If you’re interested in tax policy and infrastructure requirements, you can find more information here below, or contact me with your questions or comments. Council will vote on the recommendations on June 10.
- Report: Long Range Financial Plan VI – Tax Supported Capital (PDF)
- Staff presentation: Tax LRFP Update (PDF)
- YouTube: Finance & Corporate Services Committee Item 4.3