Rebuilding city’s streets a priority for Bennett
Mayor lists $1B in infrastructure priorities if re-elected to a third term
Mayor Daryl Bennett said rebuilding Parkhill Rd. W., floodproofing Bethune St. and creating new, serviced employment lands are among his top infrastructure priorities, if re-elected mayor.
Bennett was standing on the corner of Ravenwood Dr. and Parkhill Rd. W. on Thursday at noon when he made the announcement to the press and a group of supporters.
The location was significant: the city has already rebuilt Parkhill Rd. W. to the east of the intersection, and plans to rebuild the road to the west.
Bennett, 70, has been mayor for eight years; he’s running for re-election against Diane Therrien, 32, who’s been a Town Ward councillor for four years.
There’s currently more than $1 billion in construction projects that the city would like to attend to, Bennett said on Thursday.
He said these are his priorities, in order:
• Maintaining repairing and rebuilding the road network, including the remainder of Parkhill Rd., Lansdowne St. and Charlotte St. for example (each project includes sidewalks and cycling trails, he said).
• Completing $30 million flood mitigation project along Bethune St.
• Creating serviced employment lands through partnerships with neighbouring townships.
• Establishing the Cleantech Commons green-tech business park.
• Enhancing the water-storage capacity at the Peterborough Airport.
• Supporting Peterborough Housing Corporation with the conversion of the former McRae campus on Bonaccord St. into affordable housing for single moms and their children, as well as adding a new building for seniors who would otherwise have no choice but to live at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (for lack of space in long-term care homes).
• Construction of the new Brock Mission emergency shelter for men.
• Renewing sports facilities, including the replacement of Northcrest arena (the city has planned a new twin-pad arena on campus at Trent University to
replace the aging Northcrest).
In an interview later on Thursday, Therrien said she wasn’t impressed with this list of priorities from Bennett because it isn’t particularly forward-thinking.
These are projects city council has already planned, she said, or they’re long overdue.
“A lot of these issues have been sitting idle for eight years,” she said, referring to Bennett’s time as mayor. “It’s time to move them forward.”
Meanwhile the city can’t count on the provincial or federal governments to offer money to help with infrastructure needs, Bennett said.
“We’re hearing from upper levels of government that the cupboard is somewhat bare — and we’ll have to start financing our own projects,” he said.
But he told the crowd Thursday that the city’s in a good position to grow and flourish nonetheless, mostly because of new sources of revenue accrued under his watch.
He mentioned the new Shorelines Casino Peterborough, due to open Monday: thanks to a revenue-sharing agreement and property taxes, the city can expect at least $6 million annually.
Although council hasn’t debated or voted on it, he noted that councillors and city staff have agreed in principle to put that money toward construction projects.
Bennett also mentioned the impending sale of Peterborough Distribution Inc. to Hydro One, which is expected to net the city somewhere between $50 million and $55 million (he said the money is expected to be put toward green energy projects).