THUNDER BAY — “Could we have better roadways if we spent more there?”
Coun. Mark Bentz posed the same question to city administration on Tuesday as he did last month, when the finance and administration committee pushed back its decision on next year’s budget calendar — asking for more options on addressing potholes.
The answer provided in that report was a very qualified yes.
“We could do more if we had more,” Kayla Dixon, acting city manager, said on Tuesday.
A small pothole-dedicated tax increase could fund a short-term fix but the millions needed to really address the problem would mean a big tax hike. In its report, administration does not recommend either possibility.
After a long and repetitive discussion on the pothole question, the committee unanimously supported bringing the 2027 budget calendar report to the city council level for final approval. Bentz, Mayor Ken Boshcoff, Couns. Brian Hamilton and Albert Aiello were present. Coun. Michael Zussino was absent.
“When I look at roads, I may be biased because I use them every day,” Bentz said.
The city is nearly $11 million short of the estimated $19.4 million needed to maintain and renew its roads this year. On average, the city budgeted about $6.3 million a year (in 2024 dollars) less than it needs for roads in its 2023-2027 capital program, according to the report.
Aside from the cost to taxpayers, say city staff, dedicated funding for roadwork would reduce their ability to prioritize infrastructure work across the board.
“The reality is we have limited capital dollars that need to be spread across all of our assets and administration therefore uses that flexibility to address the priorities,” Dixon said.
With a $31 million annual shortfall for city infrastructure overall, capital funding is stretched thin across assets such as roads, arenas and parks.
Dixon, who is also the city’s commissioner of infrastructure and operations, said there are areas of the city where miscellaneous patching or crack sealing carries over into the next year once the city exhausts the dedicated funding.
Dixon says administration prioritizes arterial and collector routes because they carry the most traffic, despite residential roads deteriorating at a faster rate.
Although dedicated funding could be set aside to address potholes, she said, the city has other priority infrastructure in need of renewal.
“So we will still look to borrow, steal, money that could be assigned to roads in the capital budget that would be for full renewal of an arterial or collector, and have to move that to, for example, a bridge that needs renewal,” Dixon said. “We need the flexibility in order to have the funds go to the priority projects … We have critical assets that need repair.”
“So, we could be addressing potholes, but not the larger issue of the fact that we need to invest in our full road network in order to see that the system be functioning at a higher level. And it’s not just our roads. It’s our facilities, it’s our bridges, our sidewalks. It is all of our infrastructure.”
As next year’s budget will be put in front of a new council, Hamilton asked if there were any protections in place on the city’s assets for a future mayor willing to use strong mayor powers, powers Boshcoff hasn’t used.
“A strong mayor could come in, potentially take over the budget and, you know, put a lot of money into roads and leaving other assets to further decay. And potentially create some severe service disruption, for example, on a chiller at a hockey rink. And you know that’s going to be front and centre in the news,” he said.
If a mayor “puts forth a budget that suits his or her desires,” they have that right, responded Keri Greaves, commissioner of corporate services and treasurer.
“From administration’s perspective, our responsibility is to provide our best advice. And if the strong mayor is willing to listen, then it’s good. If not, then that’s their right under the legislation,” he said.
Meanwhile, how do council and staff achieve their goal to improve the city’s roads? Bentz asked.
Greaves suggested council refer a road-specific capital project to administration as part of the upcoming budget deliberation process.
“What that’s going to do is we’ll be obligated to do that work to put in the analysis, evaluate that project versus other projects and report back to the council as part of the budget process to say why we did or didn’t include that project in the budget and that will also allow council to have an informed discussion as part of their budget deliberations,” he said.
Bentz, who has yet to file for re-election, said he may want to put forward a motion to direct administration to do just that.
