The City of Sarnia continues to fall further behind as it tries to replace aging infrastructure.
The municipality has $2-billion in assets and, as of 2016, needs to replace $235.8-million of so-called linear infrastructure like roads and sewers.
City Engineer Andre Morin presented the daunting figure at Sarnia Council's Corporate Priorities and Strategic Planning meeting Monday morning.
He says by not fully addressing the current needs and accumulated backlog, the condition of Sarnia's assets (roads, bridges, water mains, sewers etc.) and the level of service they provide to customers will continue to decrease at a rapid rate.
Councillor Brian White thanked staff for the reality check and proposed creating a Capital Infrastructure Planning Group.
"With some hard data we can lead that discussion over what kind of a city we want to have over the next 30 to 40 years and beyond," says White. "We have to keep in mind that we have pressures that are beyond our control right now. We have to anticipate changes in regulations at the provincial level, that may cause a further decline in our industrial sector, that may hit us right in the bottom line again. We have to try and get ahead of that in terms of having infrastructure that is attractive and sustainable to new investment opportunities."
Mayor Mike Bradley says councils over the last number of years have put a lot of money into infrastructure.
"It's never enough," says Bradley. "I agree with the idea of having a real in-depth discussion about our priorities. I don't accept the doom and gloom message I'm hearing today. I did run in the last election and in previous elections on eliminating the city's debt and I stand by that. We had $97-million dollars in debt in 2003. We could have our debt eliminated within the next few years and to me that's really important."
"At one point we were paying thirteen cents on the dollar and now we're paying two or three cents. Every time you reduce a dollar of debt you have more money to do things without raising taxes."
Bradley would like to see more funding from the Federal and Provincial government.
Councillor Cindy Scholten says taking on no new debt is good and always gets a pat on the back, but she wonders at what expense.
"Right here it shows that is definitely a part of the backlog of us not being able to properly maintain and replace the assets we need and I don't know if we have enough pay as you go models," says Scholten. "We are constantly lifting user fees for different things all throughout the year, so it's just something for us to think about."
Meantime, Morin did pass along encouraging news that the city has been notified that it's eligible to receive nearly $4-million from the Clean Water & Wastewater Fund.
The fund was created by senior government for immediate improvements to water distribution & treatment infrastructure, starting in 2016-17.