Canada’s water systems and roads ‘ at risk’: report
Long- term plan recommended to avoid a crisis
More than half of the roads owned by cities across Canada need major repairs and nearly one- quarter of waste water systems require billions of dollars worth of upgrades, according to a new report card released Tuesday.
The survey of more than 120 municipalities, representing about 60 per cent of the population, suggested the critical public infrastructure, used by Canadians every day, was “at risk.”
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which released the report in partnership with construction, civil engineering and public works stakeholders, said that investments in recent years have helped, but that the country needs a long- term plan to avert a crisis.
“What this report card does is it shows that Canada is at a tipping point,” said Karen Leibovici, president of the federation, at a news conference. “We need good infrastructure to keep Canadians safe, to keep them healthy, to create jobs and to strengthen our economy. But we also know that we all need to work together to do that.”
The report also concluded that one out of four municipal roads was handling more traffic than its capacity.
“I commute into Toronto every day, so I guess I have a first- hand feeling of what that does feel like,” said Reg Andres, senior vice- president of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering. “Ultimately, you get to the point where it’s not economically feasible to transport your goods on the highway if they’re sitting on the highway for far too long.”
Drinking water systems were considered to be in better shape, but the report card estimated that there were still about 15 per cent of the infrastructure that would need upgrades.
“Infrastructure, after all, is the health care system for Canada’s national economy,” said Michael Atkinson, president of the Canadian Construction Association.
The federation has previously estimated Canada needs to spend about $ 123 billion to bring its municipal infrastructure up to acceptable levels, an additional $ 115 billion in investments are needed to meet a growing demand.
While it said it wasn’t necessarily trying to sound alarms, its report card warned of “troubling” trends that would require each Canadian household to pay an average of $ 14,000 to cover the cost of replacing the critical infrastructure that is neglected.
The federation said it would also do subsequent report cards to look at the state of transit and housing in their respective municipalities, but believed it was critical for governments to address the issue with about $ 2 billion in federal funding about to expire in March 2014.
Responding to the report card, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Denis Lebel highlighted the federal government’s recent investments in cities, explaining that it would continue to discuss maintaining that support in the future.
“We are committed to providing longterm, sustainable funding to our cities so that they can set their infrastructure priorities,” Lebel’s spokeswoman Genevieve Sicard said in an email, explaining that the government was continuing the consultations well before the 2014 expiration of its current infrastructure program — the Building Canada Plan introduced in 2007.
NDP transport, infrastructure and communities critic Olivia Chow said the government should produce a long- term plan to support the cities, noting that it would also boost job creation and the country’s economic competitiveness.