Road Repairs

We all need are CAA memberships when we are stuck at the side of the road. That being said, I think it's safe to say that your local councillor and budget chief has a difference of opinion with the folks at CAA today.

A release from the organization characterizes the City's capital budget as spending a scant $5 million on road safety backlog this year. In fact, this is a difference in interpretation. In the 2007 Capital Budget, you will find $132 million in State of Good Repair projects. This represents 124 km of Road resurfacing and rehabilitation of 16 bridges, among other things. It also commits $5 million to beginning repair of the Western Gardiner Expressway, a section of Highway downloaded to the City by Mike Harris and the gang without the funding to maintain it.

Do we need to do more? You bet. The backlog of repair on that section of highway is $80 million alone. But our transit system also needs our attention and this is an area where real progress is being made with our Provincial Government. Our Provincial partners are at the table and committed to investing in a system that is over capacity at over 450 million rides a year and, like any major transit system in North America, needs multi-government investment. We await confirmation from the Federal Government that they view Transit in the GTA as infrastructure and are ready to invest in its growth.

In the meantime, it will be another spring and summer of road construction as we invest in the safety and maintenance of our roads and bridges across the megacity. In the post below, you will find my introductory remarks from the Budget Committee meeting this morning.