Millions short on funding
Region not spending enough to maintain roads, infrastructure; anticipating funds from federal government for projects
Speaking during regional budget deliberations, Nester Pidwerbecki, the chair of the works committee, said Durham is not spending enough to keep up with road and infrastructure maintenance. Pidwerbecki said the region would need to spend an additional $7.4 million per year to keep up with road resurfacing and maintenance and will require an additional $26.7 million by 2025 for infrastructure rehabilitation and replacement.
By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express
In order to maintain Durham’s roads, the region is not spending enough money.
That information came out during the second day of budget deliberations while councillors discussed the budget for the region’s works department.
While works put forward a budget with a small increase over 2015 – going to $38.689 million from $38.017 million, or an increase of 1.77 per cent – works committee chair Nester Pidwerbecki detailed an issue that will become a growing problem in Durham if it isn’t addressed soon.
“We’re aware of all the infrastucture problems that we’re facing in all eight municipalities throughout Durham Region. We don’t have the money to look after all of them at one time,” Pidwerbecki told councillors during the second day of budget deliberation.
“So we’re hoping, like everybody else, that somewhere in this budget that’s supposed to be coming from the federal government that we may be looking at some help financially.”
In the proposed budget for 2016, there is $23.7 million allocated for road rehabilitation and road construction projects. Pidwerbecki, however, said that in order to maintain Durham’s road network on an annual basis, the region would need to be spending $31 million.
“I know everybody has problems with roads. We’ve just been maintaining the roads for a number of years now, and we’re doing that now,” he said.
“We’re not getting sufficient funding to make them any better or to add to (them) because we don’t have the funding.”
Roads are not the only piece of infrastructure short on funds in the region, with more than 50 structures in the region requiring rehabilitation or a full replacement by 2025. Based on current spending, the region would need an extra $26.7 million in the next nine years in order to complete those projects.
Funds could be coming Durham’s way from Ottawa should Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals follow through on an election promise to pump more money into infrastructure spending across the country. During the federal election, Trudeau pledged to make billions of dollars in additional funds available for infrastructure projects.
Speaking to Jim Clapp, the region’s finance commissioner, Regional Chair Roger Anderson said that the region needs to have policies put in place to dictate where those funds should go once they become available.
“We can either resurface (the roads) or if we wait…five years or whatever, then it’s a full reconstruction as opposed to a resurfacing. Are we going to come up with a policy…in regards to the infrastructure money…or are we going to sit around the table when the announcement’s made and pick what we’re going to do,” he said.
“We just heard that we’re six or seven million dollars short a year on road resurfacing. We’re 20 or 30 million short on bridge rehabilitation. If we lose a bridge, it’s enormous.”
Clapp responded that different regional departments are in the process of putting together priority lists of infrastructure projects in anticipation of the funding announcement from the federal government.