A commentary by a Victoria councillor.
As Victoria city council debates the 2024 city budget, city staff have made one thing clear: The city needs to address its long-standing infrastructure deficit to prevent a much more costly future.
During the budget discussion, staff members presented clear data to show how low taxes and the failure to adequately invest in roads and critical underground infrastructure, particularly between 1992-2020, means that we must invest more to reverse these trends.
The engineering staff report lists areas for concern such as minor roads facing “high” risk or failure and are classified as “under-funded;” major roads and traffic signals at “medium” risk or failure and only “partially funded;” and 48 per cent of roads are in poor condition, up from four per cent in poor condition in 2012.
Surprisingly, the highest risk is identified for city-owned retaining walls, with 20% of them classified as “high” risk of failure. The retaining wall budget is “under-funded.”
With any asset, be it a roof, bicycle or car engine, it always makes more sense to do proper maintenance than pay to replace or repair things after they break.
Maintaining a road after it is 65% worn down costs a theoretical $1, while waiting until it is 80% worn (after the pavement has crumbled and water has eroded the foundation), will cost $5 — five times the cost to taxpayers.
Letting infrastructure like roads and utilities fail is the one of the worst types of financial management a local government can do.
It’s always tempting for local government politicians to keep taxes artificially low and delay important infrastructure upgrades for someone else to deal with.
This is the wrong approach for a world-class city like Victoria and for future generations.
For 2024, the city has an opportunity to finally begin reversing this trend. City staff have presented a pragmatic budget that includes significant investment in roads, utilities, and community infrastructure like parks and recreation.
If council follows staff’s advice to raise taxes 5.97% (and an additional 2.4% is proposed for the Victoria Police Department), the trend of road and infrastructure degradation will be slowly reversed over the next 10 years.
As a parent of young children, I am keenly aware of the need to balance tax increases with residents’ ability to pay, especially in today’s inflationary environment. Our family, and many others, are evaluating every expense.
Now is the time to invest in the future of our city, and the core infrastructure that helps it thrive.
Excellent infrastructure will save money in the long term, increase property values, and create a better foundation for business and new developments to succeed.
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