{"id":34877,"date":"2024-07-25T17:34:51","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T21:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34877"},"modified":"2024-07-25T17:34:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T21:34:53","slug":"declining-state-of-infrastructure-could-lead-to-tough-council-decisions-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/declining-state-of-infrastructure-could-lead-to-tough-council-decisions-this-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDeclining\u201d state of infrastructure could lead to tough Council decisions this fall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A \u201cdecline\u201d in the state of infrastructure in Aurora could lead to some tough decisions around the Council table this fall as lawmakers and municipal staff look to address significant future funding gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal staff say there are paths forward to fund the gaps needed by the Town to keep essential infrastructure in shape, but doing so might require a look at the levels of service provided to residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council was recently was confronted with the stark reality that due to a number of factors, including inflation and the assumption of infrastructure from subdivision and industrial developments, a revised Asset Management Plan has identified a 35 per cent increase in the replacement costs of existing infrastructure, compared to numbers presented in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to maintain current conditions, it will cost the Town $23,882,000 over 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To maintain current levels and improve the lifespan of existing infrastructure by five per cent, the total cost over the same period would be $24,673,000. Third option, to maintain existing levels while allowing lifespan to decrease by five per cent, $22,012,000 would be required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe tax change required for full funding is 27.5 per cent, which really equates to an increase in tax revenue by an additional .89 per cent of the increase that you have already applied,\u201d said consultant Chris Vanderhayden of the Town\u2019s multi-year budget. \u201cWe have recommended a 15-year financial strategy to meet those requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar increase to maintain the water network would be 1.92 per cent over the next 15 years and, to maintain the stormwater network, 4.92 per cent over 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked by Ward 4 Councillor Michael Thompson on the different phase-in periods recommended, Town Treasurer Rachel Wainwright-van Kessel said that it was all about risk management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The longer it takes to meet identified service levels, some assets might fail and require a higher level of maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is something all municipalities are going to have to deal with and they\u2019re going to have their plan in place and approved by 2025 \u2013 we\u2019re ahead of the curve,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas. \u201cIt affords us the opportunity as we get into the 2025 budget cycle\u2026to be flexible, make adjustments where needed, to ensure we continue on the balanced approach that we continuously had since 2016 of keeping things at inflation or below inflation when it comes to our tax rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have identified 3.5 per cent [for 2025], 2.9, and the next two years\u2026 as we all know, and the public knows, I can assure you that we\u2019re going to meet those numbers because we\u2019re going to be working all summer to ensure our budget is what our residents expect and continue to get the service levels they expect and deserve\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, as Council discussed the numbers in Vanderheyden\u2019s presentation, meeting these pre-approved budget targets was top of mind \u2013 and Wainwright-van Kessel said different paths were being explored to make this a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur goal is to meet what the requirements are in our Asset Management Plan, but without increasing the tax levy that was presented in the multi-year budget,\u201d she said. \u201cWe think we have a path forward\u2026that we can present that will provide that option for Council. At that point in time, we\u2019re going to have to turn our attention to do a bit more [of a] longer-term look at how we handle that going forward after 2027, and we\u2019re looking at some other options and how we balance that overall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do have some opportunities that we did include in the budget \u2013 particularly in 2026, our LED debt project,\u201d she continued, referencing the process to switch over the Town\u2019s streetlights to LED models. \u201cThe debt on that complete, that is tax funded, and we can convert that to Asset Management Contributions and the same with the Producer Responsibility Through Waste. We already planned on converting that [to] Asset Management Contributions. Between those two and the current contributions we have in our fiscal strategy, we are very close to meeting what our obligations would be over 2025 and 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wainwright-van Kessel noted that staff will come back to Council in September with a \u201ccomprehensive plan\u201d to meet these financial obligations while staying within the pre-approved tax levy and, as this Council term ends within that 2026 window, that change-over provides staff with time to \u201crefine the plan even further.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will also be time to advocate to upper levels of government to advocate for further support to maintain these assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead to the upcoming September window, however, Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland said she would like the expected report to include how service levels will be impacted by both meeting these obligations, and in different pay period scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven if we take these service levels, which really reflect, for the most part, current service levels we have on all our assets and we accept them for what they are, we can still change them in the future,\u201d said Wainwright-van Kessel. \u201cThis is a living document so we can adapt as we go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A \u201cdecline\u201d in the state of infrastructure in Aurora could lead to some tough decisions around the Council table this fall as lawmakers and municipal staff look to address significant future funding gaps. Municipal staff say there are paths forward to fund the gaps needed by the Town to keep essential infrastructure in shape, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-94x","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 11:32:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}