Playing favourites

Councillors attack city’s strategy for determining road repairs

Two Charlottetown city councillors are accusing the public works department of favouring certain wards in the city for paving projects. However, the public works chairman says the program’s criteria ensures roads in the worst shape get done first. The issue came up during Monday’s council meeting with Coun. Bob Doiron and Coun. Mitch Tweel criticizing the current paving strategy and calling for more transparency. Dorion said his ward has been waiting to see a number of streets paved this year. “The city encompasses 10 wards, and we all should be treated equally,” said Doiron. “We deserve our fair share and I’m not accepting any less.” Coun. Terry Bernard, who chairs the public works and urban beautification committee, said the current strategy ensures the worst roads get paved first, regardless of the ward. The city’s paving formula is different from the method used by province, which still maintains the major roads entering and exiting the city.

For local streets in the city, Bernard said crews determine eligibility based on a number of factors like ruts and cracking. That information is put into a computer algorithm that ranks the roads from worst to best.

“We do what’s worst first, and the only way that would change is if we have some streets on the list that we’re going to be tearing up soon for water and sewer work, then it would go to the next eligible street,” said Bernard, who added that council ultimately votes on the committee’s recommendations. Doiron disagreed with the notion that the worst get done first.

“That’s not all 100 per cent true. There are roads in worse shape that are not getting paved, and it’s a political spin that’s old as time itself,” he said. “We all pay taxes, why should it be that we don’t get our fair share?”

Bernard described the idea of splitting paving evenly between 10 wards as an archaic model. “That’s ridiculous because you’re going to end up paving streets that really don’t need to be paved,” he said. “If you did it that way, then streets like University Avenue and the business districts would never get done.”

Tweel also attacked the criteria saying that it is subjective and creates disparity.

He named Orlebar Street as one in his ward needing repairs.

While a section of the street is scheduled to be done this year, Tweel said it needs to be completely done.

“We’re not even doing 25 per cent of it, and that’s an insult to the residents,” said Tweel, who described some of the city’s roads as having the same condition as “a backwoods road you would see in Arkansas 40 years ago.”

Tweel called for an overhaul of the city’s paving strategy and requested a public meeting with the public works committee.

Tweel and Doiron also criticized the application of other capital projects such as ditch infilling, line painting and sidewalks, saying they are concentrated in certain areas.