Riise
Dec 15, 2008, 5:45 PM
Billions Set To Flow Into Canada's Infrastructure
December 15, 2008
Calgary Herald
Mike De Souza
OTTAWA - Canada's crumbling cities are on the verge of getting a multibillion-dollar makeover through a federal strategy that is being billed by the government not only as a shot in the arm for a fragile economy, but also as a long-awaited plan to rebuild the backbone - from roads to sewage treatment - of our communities.
For years, the country's ever-growing "infrastructure deficit" took a back seat to other priorities. Now it is on the lips of virtually every politician as a key solution for tackling an economic slowdown by providing funds to companies bidding for contracts and putting people to work.
All levels of government are eager to make compromises so that billions of federal dollars can flow to the cities right away, said Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister John Baird.
"I have to tell you (that) in all the provinces there has been a sea change," Baird said in an interview. "Everyone wants to work together, everyone wants to make things happen and we're really committed . . . There is very little tolerance in the public in these times of global economic uncertainty for us to not work together."
But there's an equally pressing reason for dramatic action, say the country's mayors, leading civil engineers, urban transit agencies and environmentalists. They believe that aging sewage systems, failing water treatment facilities, crumbling roads, deteriorating bridges, and overloaded public transit networks have left cities in a critical condition, putting the health and safety of Canadians in grave danger.
The Conservative government introduced its Building Canada plan, an infrastructure strategy worth $33 billion over seven years, in its 2007 budget. But key stakeholders have raised doubts about whether it would be enough to fix the problems that are becoming more costly to resolve with each day.
"I think we have reached a crossroads in the face of the situation with (our) infrastructure," said Jean Perrault, the mayor of Sherbrooke, Que., and president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
"Everything is getting old. All our streets, all our bridges, all our sports centres, all our cultural buildings, arts and so on."
Despite repeated warnings since the 1990s that much of the infrastructure has reached the end of its service life, the federal government is at least five years away from completing a study to get a handle on the extent of the problem.
Perrault's federation estimates that cities would need at least $123 billion to bring essential public infrastructure up to acceptable levels and an additional $115 billion to build infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing population.
Within that $123 billion, the Federation estimates that $31 billion would be needed for water and waste water systems, $21.7 billion for roads, sidewalks and bridges, $22.8 billion for public transit, $7.7 billion for waste management and $40.2 billion for community, recreational, cultural and social infrastructure.
Breakdowns in infrastructure have already left tragedies in their wake and many experts fear greater disasters are looming.
The 75-year old Pattullo Bridge crossing the Fraser River in the Vancouver region continues to be the site of numerous fatal head-on collisions and accidents because of its narrow lanes that were not designed with fast-moving cars in mind.
"It's six and a half metres too narrow, we've had numerous fatalities on it and it does need to be replaced," said Dianne Watts, the mayor of Surrey, B.C. "But guess what? A municipal government just does not have the funds to make that happen."
In Quebec, the collapse of an aging overpass on a highway in the Montreal region left five people dead in 2006, prompting a public inquiry and major reforms in the management of the province's transportation network.
But one of the biggest tragedies struck in May of 2000, when a failure in the drinking water system in Walkerton, Ont., led to Canada's worst outbreak of E. coli contamination. Seven people died, while dozens wound up in the hospital and hundreds suffered from the gastro-intestinal symptoms of the illness.
Despite the multi-billion dollar pledges from the Harper government, a leading engineering expert says the federal plan simply isn't good enough.
"The government of Canada has not acknowledged that we do face a crisis right now - a crisis in terms of deteriorating infrastructure," said Saeed Mirza, a McGill University civil engineering professor who wrote the federation's study on the infrastructure deficit.
Mirza said that the longer governments take to refurbish infrastructure, the higher the cost of repairs.
"What is happening is we are coming to issues after the fact - after a disaster. I'd like to see (instead) the governments saying: 'Yes. We do face a grave problem and it needs to be addressed.' "
The federation argues that the current global economic turmoil represents a tremendous opportunity for new investments.
A study by economic forecasting firm Informetrica estimated that every billion dollars invested in infrastructure would create the equivalent of 11,000 jobs, including 5,500 in the construction sector. At the same time, the study estimated that better infrastructure could translate into savings for the private sector of up to $0.17 for every public dollar invested. The manufacturing sector, for example, could see reduced maintenance costs if delivery trucks are travelling on better roads.
The Quebec government announced plans last year to invest $12 billion over four years to build and maintain its roads and bridges - many of which were built decades ago. The provincial government has also created an autonomous agency specifically assigned to oversee that work.
Roads and bridges are only one facet of the colossal infrastructure investment needed in Canada's cities.
A confidential Environment Canada briefing note released to Canwest News Service said governments need to invest up to $20 billion to clean up waste water treatment facilities across the country, or risk dire public health consequences.
"The environmental performance of many waste water systems is not adequate, putting human and environmental health at risk," reads the briefing note, released under the Access to Information Act. "To address the existing infrastructure deficit, the waste water sector in Canada is in need of a sustained and significant investment over the coming decades."
Eight years after heavy rains overloaded water treatment facilities causing the fatal outbreak in Walkerton, the town now offers some of the safest drinking water in Canada. But its residents are still suffering lingering and chronic effects from the bacteria, which causes complications in the intestines or kidneys.
"It's still very prevalent in the community," said Bruce Davidson, who helped organize a grassroots group of concerned citizens in the aftermath of the tragedy. "What you'd find is that there are people who still struggle and still have health concerns from which really they have never recovered and in many cases never will recover."
His wife was left with irritable bowel syndrome; at the time of the E. coli outbreak, his 10-year old son suffered gout-like symptoms.
Davidson believes that the water quality problems had plagued the local residents for years, but the breakdown was only clearly identified after the tragic deaths. He said it's an example of how many communities rush to fix visible problems such as potholes, but often overlook more serious problems they can't see, such as leaks in underground pipes or overloaded water treatment systems.
"That's the nature of tight budgets these days, where we put out the current fire."
Public transit agencies across the country have also estimated they need billions of dollars in new investments to upgrade aging fleets of buses, trains, subways and supporting infrastructure for a growing number of riders.
"We don't want to get to the point where we're pushing people on to trains like they do in China or Japan," said Michael Roschlau, president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Association. "To me that's mass transit, not public transit . . . We want to provide people with comfort, not turn it into a hellish experience."
The federal government is providing billions to the cities and communities through a slate of programs that include a transfer of a portion of gas tax revenues and a complete refund of GST paid by the municipalities.
It has also begun a research project to develop a new criteria for measuring the lifespan and state of existing infrastructure.
"We talk a lot about the infrastructure deficit but there is a more serious issue - the knowledge deficit," said Zoubir Lounis, an engineer from the National Research Council, a federal research and development organization.
"We have a deficit in knowledge of the state of our assets - our critical assets, bridges, waters and sewers - that has serious consequences on safety and health."
The government announced last spring that it would spend $815,000 for the NRC, along with Engineers Canada, a professional engineering association, to develop a scientific method of evaluating infrastructure needs and identifying critical points when facilities must be replaced. Developing the formula is expected to take up to five years, but once in hand it should enable cities and communities to assess their needs more precisely than they do today.
"It's not clear what defines the end of life," said Lounis. "When do you say that this asset has its ended its service life? It's all over the map."
Perrault, from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said all levels of government must get together and hammer out solutions quickly to protect economic competitiveness and quality of life in cities across the country before it's too late.
"I don't want to see another Laval bridge fall down, I don't want to see another Walkerton, and I don't think anybody wants to see an event like this," Perrault said. "Infrastructure is so urgent."
© 2008 Canwest Publishing Inc. (http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/rebuilding-canada/Billions+flow+into+Canada+infrastructure/1058799/story.html)
December 15, 2008
Calgary Herald
Mike De Souza
OTTAWA - Canada's crumbling cities are on the verge of getting a multibillion-dollar makeover through a federal strategy that is being billed by the government not only as a shot in the arm for a fragile economy, but also as a long-awaited plan to rebuild the backbone - from roads to sewage treatment - of our communities.
For years, the country's ever-growing "infrastructure deficit" took a back seat to other priorities. Now it is on the lips of virtually every politician as a key solution for tackling an economic slowdown by providing funds to companies bidding for contracts and putting people to work.
All levels of government are eager to make compromises so that billions of federal dollars can flow to the cities right away, said Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister John Baird.
"I have to tell you (that) in all the provinces there has been a sea change," Baird said in an interview. "Everyone wants to work together, everyone wants to make things happen and we're really committed . . . There is very little tolerance in the public in these times of global economic uncertainty for us to not work together."
But there's an equally pressing reason for dramatic action, say the country's mayors, leading civil engineers, urban transit agencies and environmentalists. They believe that aging sewage systems, failing water treatment facilities, crumbling roads, deteriorating bridges, and overloaded public transit networks have left cities in a critical condition, putting the health and safety of Canadians in grave danger.
The Conservative government introduced its Building Canada plan, an infrastructure strategy worth $33 billion over seven years, in its 2007 budget. But key stakeholders have raised doubts about whether it would be enough to fix the problems that are becoming more costly to resolve with each day.
"I think we have reached a crossroads in the face of the situation with (our) infrastructure," said Jean Perrault, the mayor of Sherbrooke, Que., and president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
"Everything is getting old. All our streets, all our bridges, all our sports centres, all our cultural buildings, arts and so on."
Despite repeated warnings since the 1990s that much of the infrastructure has reached the end of its service life, the federal government is at least five years away from completing a study to get a handle on the extent of the problem.
Perrault's federation estimates that cities would need at least $123 billion to bring essential public infrastructure up to acceptable levels and an additional $115 billion to build infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing population.
Within that $123 billion, the Federation estimates that $31 billion would be needed for water and waste water systems, $21.7 billion for roads, sidewalks and bridges, $22.8 billion for public transit, $7.7 billion for waste management and $40.2 billion for community, recreational, cultural and social infrastructure.
Breakdowns in infrastructure have already left tragedies in their wake and many experts fear greater disasters are looming.
The 75-year old Pattullo Bridge crossing the Fraser River in the Vancouver region continues to be the site of numerous fatal head-on collisions and accidents because of its narrow lanes that were not designed with fast-moving cars in mind.
"It's six and a half metres too narrow, we've had numerous fatalities on it and it does need to be replaced," said Dianne Watts, the mayor of Surrey, B.C. "But guess what? A municipal government just does not have the funds to make that happen."
In Quebec, the collapse of an aging overpass on a highway in the Montreal region left five people dead in 2006, prompting a public inquiry and major reforms in the management of the province's transportation network.
But one of the biggest tragedies struck in May of 2000, when a failure in the drinking water system in Walkerton, Ont., led to Canada's worst outbreak of E. coli contamination. Seven people died, while dozens wound up in the hospital and hundreds suffered from the gastro-intestinal symptoms of the illness.
Despite the multi-billion dollar pledges from the Harper government, a leading engineering expert says the federal plan simply isn't good enough.
"The government of Canada has not acknowledged that we do face a crisis right now - a crisis in terms of deteriorating infrastructure," said Saeed Mirza, a McGill University civil engineering professor who wrote the federation's study on the infrastructure deficit.
Mirza said that the longer governments take to refurbish infrastructure, the higher the cost of repairs.
"What is happening is we are coming to issues after the fact - after a disaster. I'd like to see (instead) the governments saying: 'Yes. We do face a grave problem and it needs to be addressed.' "
The federation argues that the current global economic turmoil represents a tremendous opportunity for new investments.
A study by economic forecasting firm Informetrica estimated that every billion dollars invested in infrastructure would create the equivalent of 11,000 jobs, including 5,500 in the construction sector. At the same time, the study estimated that better infrastructure could translate into savings for the private sector of up to $0.17 for every public dollar invested. The manufacturing sector, for example, could see reduced maintenance costs if delivery trucks are travelling on better roads.
The Quebec government announced plans last year to invest $12 billion over four years to build and maintain its roads and bridges - many of which were built decades ago. The provincial government has also created an autonomous agency specifically assigned to oversee that work.
Roads and bridges are only one facet of the colossal infrastructure investment needed in Canada's cities.
A confidential Environment Canada briefing note released to Canwest News Service said governments need to invest up to $20 billion to clean up waste water treatment facilities across the country, or risk dire public health consequences.
"The environmental performance of many waste water systems is not adequate, putting human and environmental health at risk," reads the briefing note, released under the Access to Information Act. "To address the existing infrastructure deficit, the waste water sector in Canada is in need of a sustained and significant investment over the coming decades."
Eight years after heavy rains overloaded water treatment facilities causing the fatal outbreak in Walkerton, the town now offers some of the safest drinking water in Canada. But its residents are still suffering lingering and chronic effects from the bacteria, which causes complications in the intestines or kidneys.
"It's still very prevalent in the community," said Bruce Davidson, who helped organize a grassroots group of concerned citizens in the aftermath of the tragedy. "What you'd find is that there are people who still struggle and still have health concerns from which really they have never recovered and in many cases never will recover."
His wife was left with irritable bowel syndrome; at the time of the E. coli outbreak, his 10-year old son suffered gout-like symptoms.
Davidson believes that the water quality problems had plagued the local residents for years, but the breakdown was only clearly identified after the tragic deaths. He said it's an example of how many communities rush to fix visible problems such as potholes, but often overlook more serious problems they can't see, such as leaks in underground pipes or overloaded water treatment systems.
"That's the nature of tight budgets these days, where we put out the current fire."
Public transit agencies across the country have also estimated they need billions of dollars in new investments to upgrade aging fleets of buses, trains, subways and supporting infrastructure for a growing number of riders.
"We don't want to get to the point where we're pushing people on to trains like they do in China or Japan," said Michael Roschlau, president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Association. "To me that's mass transit, not public transit . . . We want to provide people with comfort, not turn it into a hellish experience."
The federal government is providing billions to the cities and communities through a slate of programs that include a transfer of a portion of gas tax revenues and a complete refund of GST paid by the municipalities.
It has also begun a research project to develop a new criteria for measuring the lifespan and state of existing infrastructure.
"We talk a lot about the infrastructure deficit but there is a more serious issue - the knowledge deficit," said Zoubir Lounis, an engineer from the National Research Council, a federal research and development organization.
"We have a deficit in knowledge of the state of our assets - our critical assets, bridges, waters and sewers - that has serious consequences on safety and health."
The government announced last spring that it would spend $815,000 for the NRC, along with Engineers Canada, a professional engineering association, to develop a scientific method of evaluating infrastructure needs and identifying critical points when facilities must be replaced. Developing the formula is expected to take up to five years, but once in hand it should enable cities and communities to assess their needs more precisely than they do today.
"It's not clear what defines the end of life," said Lounis. "When do you say that this asset has its ended its service life? It's all over the map."
Perrault, from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said all levels of government must get together and hammer out solutions quickly to protect economic competitiveness and quality of life in cities across the country before it's too late.
"I don't want to see another Laval bridge fall down, I don't want to see another Walkerton, and I don't think anybody wants to see an event like this," Perrault said. "Infrastructure is so urgent."
© 2008 Canwest Publishing Inc. (http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/rebuilding-canada/Billions+flow+into+Canada+infrastructure/1058799/story.html)