THE COST OF PROGRESS

There is a cost to not modernizing. Most people associate cost in financial terms but there is also a time component. In our City, when you talk about infrastructure and add the cost of not modernizing, you go from a state of preventative maintenance to crisis management. This is a difficult environment to work under when it is your everyday job.

There is no doubt this city needs to reverse the trend of working in crisis management mode and progress to a preventative maintenance mentality. This will take both time and money. I recently had a conversation with Dr. Mark Lemstra from the Alliance Health Clinic. We were discussing the subject of crisis management versus preventative maintenance. He said, “There is never enough money to deal with crisis, but there is money for preventative measures.” What he said summed up our City’s present situation. It may not be politically sexy or appealing, but it is true.

In an effort to deal with the Provincial Budget in the 1990s, the City cut 25 employees, including important positions in the Engineering and the Planning Departments. The result of those job losses and zero tax increases meant the City lost corporate experience, knowledge and information. Our present infrastructure records are outdated and this has had a direct impact on how quickly the City and its contractors can get work done. Council of the day also settled on several years of 0% tax increases, creating short-term financial gain for residents at the cost of long-term infrastructure stability. Moderate annual tax increases not only would have allowed the City to retain valuable staff, they would have allowed for preventative maintenance and replacement of City infrastructure, negating some of the crises we have faced recently. This year alone we have set a record for water main breaks in Moose Jaw (96 as of the publishing of this article).

Today we are dealing with similar Provincial Budgets which could affect the services we provide. Council could repeat the reactive cycle of those decisions made in the 1990s or choose to move forward focusing on the positives of infrastructure renewal.

If we choose the latter, businesses and the citizens of Moose Jaw will be inconvenienced for the foreseeable future as we rebuild our infrastructure that has been neglected over a number of decades. Previously, City budgets have reflected a 200-year infrastructure replacement program, which would have resulted in a program imploding on itself. This was unrealistic and the work would never have been completed. This past budget, Council approved almost $4.9 million, which brought our water main replacement program down to 20 years. In 2018 we will be looking to increase the budget in the hopes of accelerating that program. This means there will be street closures while water mains are being replaced, streets are paved and other infrastructure upgrades are made.

The City is in year two of the water main replacement program and each year we will get better at improving the inconveniences of having construction outside businesses and homes. How? Through experience and upgrading our documents, as we deal with the different areas being replaced. This Council and Administration is dedicating time and money to infrastructure. The current program is resolving failures in the most difficult sections of our system. Future programs should cause less inconvenience.

We, as a city, need to face the challenges head on! We will be improving our track record as we go from crisis management to preventative maintenance. This will be inconvenient and frustrating at times, but the results will prove to be worthwhile!