With the federal government wrapping up nearly six months of consultations on its long-term infrastructure plan, the Town of Halton Hills is backing the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) proposal that says Canada needs a 20-year plan with predictable funding to fix its crumbling infrastructure.
That’s the message delivered by the FCM recently as it released its recommendations on the Government of Canada’s long-term infrastructure plan.
“A long-term federal funding commitment that reflects the life-cycles of the infrastructure it is meant to fix is needed to allow municipalities to invest wisely and strategically in priority areas over decades, not just years,” said FCM president, Councillor Karen Leibovici. “It also means breaking away from budgets built on application forms and providing a predictable funding envelope for all municipalities.”
“The Town of Halton Hills has benefited from programs such as the Federal Gas Tax Fund and one time programs such as the Economic Action Plan,” said Halton Hills Mayor Rick Bonnette. “With increasingly tightened budgets and rising costs, we need all levels of Government to work together on infrastructure programs. Long term stable funding will allow us to plan our projects and save our taxpayers money.”
The Federation says the inefficiencies and uncertainty resulting from application-based programs is even more acute for smaller and rural communities that do not have the staff resources of larger municipalities.
“As an FCM Board Member it was an honour to work on the Long Term Infrastructure Plan with my colleagues from across Canada,” said Halton Hills Councillor Clark Somerville, FCM Board Member for Halton. “We developed a Plan that recognizes the challenges smaller communities face with replacing our aging infrastructure. It can be difficult to meet the Program requirements due to a lack of staff resources, tight time frames or budget capacity. We must remember that municipalities receive only 8 cents of the Canadian tax dollar but are responsible for over 60% of its infrastructure.”
The FCM proposals also call for an increase in annual federal investments dedicated to municipal infrastructure from $3.25 billion to $5.75 billion to bring it in line, as a percentage of GDP, with historical levels from the 1950s to the mid-1970s that allowed proper infrastructure maintenance and growth.
The money would build roads, bridges, trails, recreation facilities, reduce gridlock and improve quality of life.
The FCM identified in 2007 that the infrastructure deficit in Canada was $123 billion. The Town of Halton Hills has estimated the deficit here at about $153 million.
FCM is proposing maintaining the existing permanent gas tax transfer, but with a cost-of-living indexation to protect its buying power. It is also proposing creating a number of new federal programs designed to efficiently leverage matching investments from municipalities and provinces with a minimum of red tape and bureaucratic costs.
