Municipal election candidates ask for patience on fixing potholes and old pipes

The rough roads of northeastern Ontario are once again on the mind of voters with municipal election day three weeks away.

But those running to be mayors and councillors for the next four years are saying there are no easy answers on infrastructure.

"It's a perennial issue. It's always going to be a problem," said Michael Sanders, a candidate for city council in Greater Sudbury and the owner of Aaron Taxi. 

"I've lost quite a few of my own rims and tires to our roads."

But Sanders says his decision to run was based more on the state of downtown Sudbury and if elected, he would push for more tax dollars to be spent on asphalt in the outlying areas, rather than the inner-city Ward 10 he hopes to represent.

"I think if you talk to people, their expectations are just that: safe, reliable," he said. 

In Kirkland Lake, town council has a plan to fix roads and pipes over the next 20 years, with property taxes going up at least 2.7 per cent each year.  

"So we're going to be playing catch-up," said councillor Stacy Wight, who is now one of two candidates running to the town's next mayor. 

"But it's definitely going to take some hard choices by upcoming council."

Wight says while it comes up in every election campaign, infrastructure is not an easy way to score political points.

"The reward of getting the job done in infrastructure is not hearing the complaints about that road that's been in disrepair for decades," she said. 

"If you're wise, you don't get into municipal politics for a pat on the back."

Wight says as mayor she will "aggressively lobby" the province for infrastructure dollars, which municipal leaders across the northeast say have been tough to get out of Queen's Park in recent years. 

Paul Schoppmann, the mayor of the small town of St. Charles and the president of the Ontario Good Roads Association, says that leaves few options for municipalities trying to fix pipes and pavement. 

He said his town of 1,200 needs to repair Lake Road, a former camp road now seeing heavier traffic with more permanent residents, but the multi-million-dollar bill means either borrowing money, doing it in phases or hiking property tax.

"Already just raising the taxes around two per cent just to keep up, so it's very challenging for new projects to raise taxes further," said Schoppmann, who is seeking another term.

He says voters need to stop expecting everything to be built brand-new and start seeing road patching as a good way to maintain existing infrastructure.

Daryl Vaillancourt, a town councillor in Callander now running for mayor, also sees long-term maintenance as the main way to address the infrastructure gap.

He's worried about the town's sewage lagoon, which if not looked after would require a "huge price tag" to replace.

"If that's not cared for and extended life, we could be in a situation, where quite literally we can't afford to do it," said Vaillancourt, who previously served four terms on North Bay city council. 

"If we have to build it in the next 10 years, we wouldn't have the money to do it."

One piece of municipal infrastructure that very few candidates are talking about in this election is public transit. 

"Because people think of it as a lesser need, because it serves the lesser people, the lower class," said Julie Sheldon, a regular rider in Timmins and founder of the Fight for Public Transit Facebook page.

"If people want services in the food industry, retail, they are going to need public transit. Otherwise the city's not going to be a fun place to live."

She's happy to see a few mayor and council candidates in Timmins at least mentioning transit in their platforms, especially as she expects the rising cost of gasoline and repairs will drive more people to swap their car for a bus pass

"People who ride the bus currently are frustrated and wish they had their own vehicles, it's just we have no other choice," Sheldon said. 

"But with the price of everything going up, I have a feeling many more people will be choosing public transit and feeling the need for it to improve."