c_speed3108
Jun 18, 2008, 3:40 PM
Phone, cable companies damaging roads: Report
Municipalities forced to clean up mess, repair streets, group says
Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2008
OTTAWA - Property owners have been left with a $646-million bill for road repairs and pot holes because of the network expansion of private phone and cable companies, says a new report released Wednesday.
The study, produced by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said that cities are forced to clean up the mess and repair roads after telecommunications companies dig to install and upgrade their equipment underground.
"The federal telecommunications system is failing Canadians and weakening their communities," said the report, Highway Robbery: How Federal Telecom Rules Cost Taxpayers and Damage Public Roads. "Property tax payers are losing $148 per metre in unrecovered costs for expanded or upgraded telecommunications equipment within municipal roadways."
The FCM said the federal government must modernize CRTC regulations that are more than a century old in order to give municipalities more control over access to public roads.
"Under the current regime, municipal governments have lost both the ability to control their own rights-of-way (ROWs) and the ability to recover the ongoing costs imposed on them when telecommunications companies dig up public roads and install their equipment in public ROWs," said the report. "The roots of the problem are entangled in century-old legislation whose right-of-way provisions were not substantially changed when a new Telecommunications Act was adopted in 1993."
The FCM estimates that tax payers are paying $107 million every year in subsidies for road repairs following work done by telecommunications companies. But the municipalities said it's up to the federal government to fix the problem and prevent long and drawn-out court cases.
"Our issue is not with the telecommunications companies, it is with successive federal governments that have swept this problem under the rug," said Sherbrooke, Que., Mayor Jean Perrault, who is the FCM president. "We are calling on the current government to break with the past and fix the problem. If it doesn't, it will be telling Canadians that their property taxes should be subsidizing profitable telecommunications companies."
© Canwest News Service 2008
There should be limitations of where and when they dig. Sort of time windows for each street..timed to match up with scheduled road re-rehabilitation projects.
Also if digging does have to take place the requirement should be that repaving is done curb to curb...no patches which produce cracks later.
Municipalities forced to clean up mess, repair streets, group says
Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2008
OTTAWA - Property owners have been left with a $646-million bill for road repairs and pot holes because of the network expansion of private phone and cable companies, says a new report released Wednesday.
The study, produced by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said that cities are forced to clean up the mess and repair roads after telecommunications companies dig to install and upgrade their equipment underground.
"The federal telecommunications system is failing Canadians and weakening their communities," said the report, Highway Robbery: How Federal Telecom Rules Cost Taxpayers and Damage Public Roads. "Property tax payers are losing $148 per metre in unrecovered costs for expanded or upgraded telecommunications equipment within municipal roadways."
The FCM said the federal government must modernize CRTC regulations that are more than a century old in order to give municipalities more control over access to public roads.
"Under the current regime, municipal governments have lost both the ability to control their own rights-of-way (ROWs) and the ability to recover the ongoing costs imposed on them when telecommunications companies dig up public roads and install their equipment in public ROWs," said the report. "The roots of the problem are entangled in century-old legislation whose right-of-way provisions were not substantially changed when a new Telecommunications Act was adopted in 1993."
The FCM estimates that tax payers are paying $107 million every year in subsidies for road repairs following work done by telecommunications companies. But the municipalities said it's up to the federal government to fix the problem and prevent long and drawn-out court cases.
"Our issue is not with the telecommunications companies, it is with successive federal governments that have swept this problem under the rug," said Sherbrooke, Que., Mayor Jean Perrault, who is the FCM president. "We are calling on the current government to break with the past and fix the problem. If it doesn't, it will be telling Canadians that their property taxes should be subsidizing profitable telecommunications companies."
© Canwest News Service 2008
There should be limitations of where and when they dig. Sort of time windows for each street..timed to match up with scheduled road re-rehabilitation projects.
Also if digging does have to take place the requirement should be that repaving is done curb to curb...no patches which produce cracks later.