Infrastructure and Maintenance

As the city grows we need to fund the development and maintenance of our infrastructure. Water and waste water, lights, roads, sidewalks and all of the maintenance to keep this in good repair. 

 

For decades municipalities collected Development Charges to fund the building of new infrastructure and its maintenance. Legislative changes have constrained this funding source and as the city welcomes more development and growth, we are restricted in the amount and timing of when Development Charges may be collected. This means we have to provide the infrastructure upfront and wait for the development to take place before we are able to collect any Development Charges and these do not cover our costs.

 

This arrangement creates revenue shortfalls as without the Development Charges the pressure is shifted to existing property taxpayers. We want to grow, but we want complete communities, healthy and sustainable neighbourhoods. The Association of Municipalities and Ontario Big City Mayors have been advocating that the province provide municipalities with a new financial framework if Development Charges continue to be restricted. While city staff work hard to access federal and provincial grants to offset these costs this is not a sustainable, predictable or reliable long term infrastructure funding strategy.