A closer look at Sutcliffe’s $10 billion infrastructure plan | Opinion

Mayoral candidate Mark Sutcliffe’s $10 billion infrastructure plan is a slick piece of political packaging that addresses the biggest issue the next city council will face.

For years, Ottawa municipal politicians have failed to set aside enough money to properly maintain the city’s roads, arenas, community centres, parks, and water and sewer pipes. Over the next 10 years, the city faces an estimated gap of $10.8 billion between the funds it has and its anticipated infrastructure repair and replacement needs.

City council took a modest first step in addressing that problem with a two-year plan passed earlier this year. What’s missing was a longer-term solution to the accumulated repair problem.

Sutcliffe’s plan aims to provide that solution. The short version is spend $10 billion over 10 years, problem gone.

While it is high time someone set out to accomplish that goal, the details of the plan to some degree reflect the reasons why infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate so badly in the first place.

Fixing things up is dreary and boring. Re-roofing an area or replacing a sewer pipe doesn’t make for much of a photo opportunity. That’s why politicians have been so bad at it. New things are much more exciting.

No doubt with that in mind, Sutcliffe’s plan proposes new roads, new community and recreation centres, and new parks. The additions will be necessary and welcome, but they do somewhat blur the line between fixing up and adding new.

That said, Sutcliffe’s plan is solidly focused on maintaining and building the basic things that people require in their communities.

The plan specifically addresses a couple of areas where the city has fallen short. It offers $500 million for climate change adaptation, especially to help flood-prone areas. This summer’s rains have shown that Ottawa has significant drainage problems. Adequate storm sewers should be a basic expectation.

The plan also promises to advance suburban infrastructure like roundabouts, traffic lights and sidewalks so they are ready when residents move in, not years afterwards.

The other main candidates in this mayoral election did wonder where the $10 billion will come from.

It’s a good question that lacks a simple answer. Sutcliffe says his plan will rely on a wide variety of sources including water and sewer rate revenue, development charges, property taxes, debt, efficiencies in city operations, and help from the federal and provincial governments.

An election promise concerning things that will happen over a decade is necessarily vague, but none of this is implausible. The federal and provincial governments have municipal infrastructure programs, and they both understand that property taxes are insufficient to handle all municipal needs. The other revenue sources are under city control.

While new in detail and scope, Sutcliffe’s plan is an acceleration of what council has already been doing in his first term as mayor. During that period, infrastructure spending went up by 44 per cent and the amount of money spent on roads and sidewalks nearly doubled.

Sutcliffe’s three key opponents are talking about infrastructure, too. Jeff Leiper wants a one per cent infrastructure levy to help reduce the backlog. Sutcliffe is opposed to that, calling it a tax by another name.

Alex Lawson supports a southern ring road and a stronger focus on rural roads. Sutcliffe also offers those plans.

Neil Saravanamuttoo has promised an “honest conversation about our infrastructure deficit.” That and $10 billion will solve a lot of problems.

Of the four chief mayoral candidates, Sutcliffe has by far the best and most detailed plan for repairing and maintaining the city’s $90 billion in infrastructure. It would be easy to focus entirely on new things and downplay the mundane task of repair, but Sutcliffe has not. It’s the responsible approach.

Randall Denley is an Ottawa journalist and author. Contact him at randalldenley1@gmail.com