MHCA urges City of Winnipeg to expedite use of pothole funding
The City of Winnipeg should quickly rollout a program to fix the roads, using the funding recently announced by the provincial government to address the extraordinary pothole problem this spring, MHCA President Chris Lorenc says.
Lorenc sent Mayor Brian Bowman and Council members on EPC an email, noting the City is to receive roughly $9 million of the $15 million total of provincial dollars, made available in one-time, emergency funding. The funding announced May 9 is on top of already established road funding and municipal transfer dollars in the 2022 provincial budget.
“We assure municipalities that the heavy construction industry is keenly aware of the pressing need for additional maintenance of streets and roads this spring,” Lorenc said. “We urge Winnipeg and all municipalities to put that money to work, quickly.”
Lorenc stressed that the pothole fixes were just that – quick fixes to reduce risk to people and damage to vehicles. The protracted deep cold of the winter followed by the wet spring created huge potholes on streets, including on high-speed regional roads, such as Route 90. Vehicles had to slow to near stops to navigate the holes or, at times, choose alternative routes in their daily drives.
The answer to the deeper problem – neglected maintenance due to budgets that are simply insufficient to the need – is to plan long-term to address the infrastructure investment deficit. Winnipeg’s investment deficit in its streets is $1.9 billion and Manitoba has a $9 billion investment deficit in highways and bridges.
All municipalities are struggling to meet the demands of their infrastructure needs because they collect just 10 cents of every tax dollar, yet they are responsible for more than half of all public infrastructure.
Lorenc recently published a commentary piece in the Winnipeg Free Press, urging civic officials to lead the call, in this fall’s election campaign, for a new fiscal deal with higher levels of government, recognizing their need for better sharing of tax dollars and the introduction of new tax sources.
