It shouldn’t come as a surprise to any taxpayer in Yorkton, or for that matter and urban community in Saskatchewan, there is an infrastructure shortfall happening.
Whether it is pavement, sidewalks, or water and sewer lines, they are often decades old, near, or past what would be an expected lifetime.
It’s not that different when one looks at many municipal assets, when it’s the Public Works Building, or the grandstand, they are showing their age.
But as stated that is not a new realization. Recent Yorkton Councils have been rather straight forward with that news, pointing out how at the present level of capital expenditures when a new street is paved or sidewalk laid, it will then be decades before it will be replaced.
However, increasingly we see that work needs to be done now.
Anyone doubting that has not driven on any of a number of Yorkton streets and had to dodge one pothole after the next.
When work is undertaken it comes with increasingly high costs.
Highway #10 construction from Hwy #9 in front of the Parkland Mall to Mayhew Avenue will commence in mid-July. This project includes road reconstruction, an upsized water line, pathway, and street lights. When combined with Mayhew construction (Hwy #10 to Darlington Street) the project is more $3.5 million.
Then there is the proposed Broadway Street Reconstruction project. It may be dependent on whether the City is successful in its grant application through the Build Canada Fund, but it will still be a mega project for our city if it goes forward, estimated at some $52 million, $17 million of which the City would have to ante up.
When Council took a first look at a possible 2016 Capital Budget Monday we saw more evidence of the growing need and growing cost.
Management proposed a total Capital Budget of $19,634,000 at Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting.
Since the City would be looking to borrow $12,514,720 to complete the proposed projects it would need to budget for the loan payments required.
The ones paying the bill in the end will be taxpayers, and that bill is going to grow moving forward.
At the regular Council meeting Monday a draft Capital Financing Projection for the next 15-years was presented. Management identified $69,000,000 in infrastructure projects over that timeframe.
While only a projection, and one Council did not even discuss in any detail, the amount is big, and it would hit taxpayers with a three per cent hike in property taxes for six straight years to help finance the work. That is a big increase, one taxpayers are likely to balk at.
But then the question becomes what is the alternative?
Are we going to accept potholes as just part of life in the city? Are we going to be happy if we have to deal with days without water, or maybe sewer, if old lines fail in January and repairs take days to carry out?
This will be the question taxpayers will have to answer. What level of infrastructure do we deem critical, and how much are we willing to pay to make sure it is there in the years ahead? It will be a difficult discussion to have, one likely decades late, but it must be undertaken without further delay as the City looks forward to 2030.
