Last week's federal budget is turning into a big opportunity for Greater Sudbury city council to make some progress on improving the state of local roads.
Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced a one-time doubling of the $2.2 billion in gas tax revenues the government gives cities each year for transit-related programs. That means Sudbury will receive an extra $9.8 million in 2019.
Meeting on Tuesday, the city's finance and administration committee voted to use all of the extra money to improve the city's road network, in particular local roads. That's on top of the $3.9 million council already included in the 2019 budget for work on local and arterial roads. Arterial roads are high capacity roads that carry a lot of traffic, while local roads are less busy streets that people take to get from where they live to arterial roads.
Mayor Brian Bigger said council has already made big investments in Greater Sudbury Transit, with major changes coming this fall. With the worst pothole season in recent memory in the city, residents have made it clear that something needs to be done.
“It was an extreme winter, and it's turning into an extreme spring season,” Bigger said, adding council needs “to bring our road network to a much higher standard.
“I've heard from citizens,” Bigger said. “It is important we bring these roads back up to a (higher) condition.”
Ward 5 Coun. Bob Kirwan said he supported the idea, but wanted to be sure the money wouldn't be spent on one or two roads, but across the city.
“We want to spread this out so next spring we don't have the same situation as this year,” Kirwan said. “We have to be able to go deeper than just fixing arterial roads.”
A staff report with a detailed list of which roads they propose to repair with the added $9.8 million will be ready by May.
