To the Editor:
Most people don't give a lot of thought to what it takes for them to get to their destination every day. Restrict their ability to travel freely and it's a different story. Reliable transportation and infrastructure is important for education, health care and social interaction. It is a part of our everyday lives.
There's an old saying: "It takes a village to raise a child." The same concept applies to the growth of our population and its impact on our municipalities and their infrastructure. Provincial and federal programs must support the development of core and essential infrastructure such as roads, water and sewage facilities, land drainage facilities, solid waste facilities, transit, parks and buildings.
Constrained by other levels of government, municipalities face difficult decisions on how to spend their limited funds, and are hesitant to raise property taxes for infrastructure. Decades of reduced investment has created a backlog of maintenance and repair work required to get our roads back to their intended design life. Now more than ever, we need national and provincial programs paired with public policy commitment to designate funds to infrastructure investment.
Growing communities need to focus on the construction of new assets such as roads, water/sewage systems, schools, and hospitals. They also need to repair and replace their existing infrastructure, often to keep up with the demands of a growing population. Taking a disciplined approach to determining infrastructure priorities provides governments and industry with the direction they need.
We also need a long-term vision for infrastructure. Cyclical capital programs can cost taxpayers more. Tendering projects during periods of lower demand (over the winter months) would likely yield better infrastructure pricing and allow the industry to begin work as soon as the ground conditions permit.
It's time for government to look at the infrastructure deficit as an opportunity and not as a problem we may never solve. We can't keep funding our infrastructure through traditional means; it's simply no longer working. It is time government did things differently!
Shantel Lipp, President, Sask. Heavy Construction Assoc.
