Feds, Province need to increase funding to help towns, cities support infrastructure, Councillors contend

July 23, 2026 · 0 Comments

More funds are needed in order to properly maintain municipal assets like roads and facilities, but, in the midst of an election, how best to do that is up for discussion – and will be a question Aurora’s next Council will have to address.

At its final Council meeting before the summer recess, Council received a Long-Term Asset Management Funding Strategy, focused on maintaining healthy financial reserves at Town Hall to address infrastructure challenges when needed.

The report found that Aurora’s current Asset Management funding strategy of dedicating one per cent of the tax levy each year to reserves “has resulted in a reduced level of service for multiple asset categories” and money is only going to be stretched further as more assets are being added to the Town’s roster.

“In developing the 2026 10-year capital budget, adjustments to the service level of roads projects were made,” said staff. “The level of service for roads projects was reduced from 70 Pavement Quality Index (PQI) to 65 PQI. In addition, facilities, parks, and IT projects were deferred to ensure the affordability of [the] 10-year capital plan. These deferrals have reduced the level of service for each respective asset category in the short-term. The long-term strategy would be to continue to implement the annual increases to asset management based on the recommendations of the Asset Management Plan.

“The current practice of increasing the capital reserve contributions by one per cent of the annual tax levy is not enough to fund the recommendations of the Asset Management Plan. Of the one per cent annual increases, approximately 0.16 per cent is contributed towards the Growth and New, and Studies, and other reserves. The remaining 0.84 per cent annual increase goes directly to asset management reserves.”

The report recommends an annual increase of 0.25 per cent, a suggestion that will be considered by the Council elected in October.

At Council’s latest review of the recommendations, Ward 3 Councillor Wendy Gaertner sought assurances that going down this path would help the Town cover the current and anticipated backlog.

“There’s multiple ways that this can be dealt with,” replied Rachel Wainwright-van Kessel, Aurora’s Director of Finance. “Even when we look at the backlog today, we can also look at the performance of assets that we want to maintain, the life of those assets, and how we manage and maintain them over time. When we did the original asset management plan, a lot of the assumptions were based on more of a financial asset life and the Asset Management Team and Engineering now is looking on a more comprehensive behaviour of the way the assets are actually performing over time. There are going to be adjustments to the plan. It’s an ongoing conversation we’ll be having with Councils over the next few years.”

Reviewing the recommendations, Ward 4 Councillor Michael Thompson said many municipalities across the country were facing similar challenges in maintaining their assets – and they have to do so by receiving just $0.08 of every collected tax dollar.

“[Organizations] have calculated the nationwide municipal infrastructure deficit at around $270 billion, with Ontario municipalities alone facing approximately $100 billion in infrastructure needs over the coming decade,” he said. “This deficit didn’t happen overnight and it can’t be solved overnight, nor can we do this alone; we need both the Province and the Federal government to increase their infrastructure funding for all municipalities. As far as I know… most if not all the municipalities have all allocated funds for addressing this infrastructure deficit, and it’s anywhere from 1 to 3%. And even then, we recognize that it’s not enough, unless the province and the feds help out the municipalities. It’s just because of the nature of the fact that we own most yet get…. only 8 cents on the dollar from taxes.

“But I think it’s important to point out that this is really just another report advising us of the issues; raising the infrastructure funding is one approach in which we can tackle this long-term deficit. I think Council as a whole next term needs to look at all the projects and make tough decisions around not just the repair and replacement of assets and the timing that goes with it, but some of growth and new projects and whether or not we need to go forward with them, or focus more on the basics and make sure that we are ensuring that we take care of the assets that we have before engaging in any new plans.”

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter