Infrastructure! My Kingdom for More Infrastructure!
The same old approach is never going to solve the infrastructure deficit.
A New (temporary) Fire Hall
On April 23rd three orders of government announced the funding of a temporary fire hall in Waverley West, a suburb of Winnipeg. It was noted that Waverley West is the fastest growing area of Winnipeg and in desperate need of a fire hall.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-waverley-west-fire-paramedic-station-1.7182595
This fire hall, whether temporary or permanent, is 10 years late, and about 20 years after the approval of Waverley West development. Fire halls are usually “leading” infrastructure, intended to be put in place towards the beginning of a new development and not 20 years after approval. Coincidentally, this announcement comes on the heels of the delay, due to lack of funding, of the South Winnipeg Recreation Campus a mere two weeks earlier.
Regardless, Waverley West is finally getting a fire and paramedic station, something everyone agrees is desperately needed. Temporary fire halls are not unusual. Often they are smaller and built to be converted to a different use later, as either a community centre or housing. A temporary fire hall is a cost effective way to get this type of leading infrastructure before a community is fully built out.
More Money, Please
What jumped out in the reporting on the fire hall announcement was the impassioned plea from Councillors and the Mayor for more funding from the provincial and federal governments. This is not an unreasonable request nor, frankly, a new one. Canadian municipalities, coast to coast to coast, have been asking for more money for decades. The federal government has responded with a dedicated portion of the Gas Tax, transit funding, the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP), and most recently the Housing Accelerator Fund. All of these federal funding programs are specifically targeted towards municipalities. (To the ire of some provinces! See Alberta)
With these long-term and stable funding streams in place, we’ve seen the share of tax dollars collected going to municipalities grow from 8 cents on the dollar to 10 cents. That means that for each dollar we pay in taxes; all taxes from the PST, GST, income tax, property tax etc., 10 cents of that dollar goes to the municipality. The provincial and federal governments collect and keep the other 90% of taxes.
60 is More Than 10
Why this matters so much to Winnipeg and every other municipality, is that while the city receive 10% of all taxes collected, municipalities own 60% of the public infrastructure in Canada. They are responsible for maintaining and operating roads and bridges, water and sewage treatment facilities, parks and libraries and thousands of kilometres of pipes. That 10% of the tax dollar pays for transit, fire, and police services. It pays for waste and recycling services and recreation and sports facilities.
That 10% doesn’t come close to being enough to build all the new stuff needed for growing cities, it also doesn’t come close to being enough to maintain what we already have. The most recent Canadian Infrastructure Report Card found a significant amount of this infrastructure is in poor condition.
From the 2019 Report:
The Infrastructure Deficit
When leaders talk about the “infrastructure deficit” they are talking about the infrastructure we rely on every day and is key to quality of life. This deficit has been building for decades. Cities and towns have been lobbying for greater funding for decades. While there has been some progress; they now get 10%, up from 8% 10 years ago, there is still a long way to go.
The joint funding of a temporary fire hall in Waverley West is a good thing but it doesn’t go very far in addressing the infrastructure deficit. It does, as we have seen, provide a good opportunity to highlight the inequities of funding for municipalities.
In Winnipeg, it adds to the litany of delayed, pending, deferred, and unfunded infrastructure projects that have been in the news the last few months.
A short Winnipeg (wish)list:
South Winnipeg Recreation Centre: $100Million
North End Sewage Treatment Plant: $2.5Billion
Chief Peguis Extension: $500Million
Kenaston Boulevard: $500Million
Arlington Bridge: $500Million
Combined Sewers: $2.5Billion
That short list of recent announcements adds up to an over $6.5 Billion funding gap. All that while we are closing 20 pools due to lack of maintenance, our public spaces falling into disrepair, and we need new libraries, parks, trees, fire halls, and transit service for a growing city.
To explore more about municipal finance and infrastructure specifically, I want to direct you to the great blog Dear Winnipeg, where The Elmwood Guy explores all of these issues in entertaining detail! So much there to nerd out on!
While Winnipeg is calling for more funding from the feds and province, it is important to keep in mind that every other municipality in Manitoba and Canada is doing exactly the same thing. Each city is dealing with the very same challenge of having 60% of the public infrastructure and10% of the tax revenue. Each city has to deal with maintaining the existing and crumbling roads and bridges at the same time as needing to build new pools, libraries, and fire halls.
Bye Bye Status Quo
Simply put, the status quo is not tenable.
There are three aspects of the status quo that need to change.
Funding Model
The first is that the funding model for municipalities needs to change. It is untenable that they continue to be responsible for 60% of the infrastructure but only 10% of the tax revenue. And remember, that property tax revenue generally pays for the operating cost of the city, it pays for the bus driver and not the bus. It pays for the fire fighter not the fire hall.
Growth Pattern
Not a surprise here, the last 75 years of growing in a car-dependent suburban sprawl has led us to a sustainability dead end. (Read Dear Winnipeg!!!). We’ve been talking about changing the way we grow and build cities for many years yet very little has changed. We still build deeply automobile oriented communities, spreading further and further out. Sprawl is financially, environmentally, and socially unsustainable. My 1st post here was about that very thing. How We Grow and Where. None of this is new, decision makers and planners have known this for decades.
Passing the Buck
Another consistent pattern (and I was part of it!) in this status quo has been for municipalities to decry to their residents that the reason they can’t have nice things is because the province and feds don’t give them enough money. We saw it with the opening of the fire hall, we hear it at every budget discussion. This is a pattern that has been in place for a long time (not only in Winnipeg!). This has been going on for so long, and is so predictable, it is imbedded into every discussion, and again, I have been guilty of this as well.
Reality Bites
Realistically there just won’t be enough money to keep building the same thing as before. The status quo approach of municipal government, and here Winnipeg is a standout example, of continuing to sprawl, not keep up with maintaining what is already there, and continuing to go to others cap in hand must end.
Change is hard. Breaking patterns of behaviour is never easy. In particular breaking patterns that have been literally set in concrete for the past 75 years are particularly difficult. Winnipeg, and other municipalities, are deeply entrenched in behaviours we know need to change. Knowing we need to change and actually making the change are very often two different things.
The Old Maxim Is True
It’s cliche, but great challenges present great opportunities. There are ways of doing all this differently. For a lot of these challenges there are no quick or easy fixes. Reversing urban sprawl is a slow shift and no matter if we stop building new car-dependent communities today, we still have the last 75 years of car-dependency already built in. Repairing sprawl will take time.
Municipalities have always been leaders in change. Whether commitments to GHG reduction (municipalities were the 1st on board with Kyoto 20 years ago) or eliminating smoking in public, Canadian cities and towns have always been leaders for change.
Change is happening. Cities are seizing opportunities for more inclusive zoning to more proactively address the housing crisis. More bike lanes are being installed in municipalities big and small. Transit systems are electrifying right across the country. Cities are beginning to open up pedestrian zones to support local business. Low Impact Development is becoming common place and “sponge cities” are being explored.
Seize the moment, Winnipeg
Unfortunately for Winnipeggers, most of these changes are happening elsewhere. We seem to be more deeply entrenched in the status quo than others. When we do explore change we are nibbling around the edges with another “pilot”. Often that “pilot” is of something that is being successfully implemented in comparable Canadian cities.
The challenge is acute in Winnipeg. The need to seize the opportunity is all the more important. The list of infrastructure challenges is not going anywhere. The time for breaking the pattern of status quo approaches to these challenges is now.
More roads, more sprawl, more money has not got us anywhere. The status quo is not getting us anywhere except needing more money, more sprawl, and more roads.
Brian
ps. There will be more to come on this. (make sure to subscribe!) There are great examples of what is being done elsewhere, and even a couple of examples of what is being done in Winnipeg.
As a teaser, here is a great idea courtesy of Save our Seine.