Petition calls on Amherstburg to repair rural road as town prepares to consider maintenance spend

A woman whose elderly parents live in rural Amherstburg has launched a campaign to get the town to repair the street they live on — at a time when town council is preparing to consider how much to raise taxes to pay for infrastructure maintenance.  

Kerry McGrail's online petition to fix Concession 6 North currently has around 500 signatures.

McGrail said the road has been in bad shape for at least five years, and her mother had to replace the control arm of her vehicle because of it.

But she was moved to launch the petition after her father, who has bad arthritis in his back, spent time in hospital and needed to be transported home.

"I actually had to tell them ... 'Go through McGregor, go up Middle Side Road' just to minimize the amount of time that he's spent on that road because it is just jostling and bumping and terrible," McGrail said.

McGrail is angry that Concession 6 North isn't slated for repair until at least 2031, while, in the meantime, the town council is funding parks and recreational activities in the town, she said.

Concession 6 not the worst road in town

And she questions whether council is prioritizing the desires of those living in town over the needs of rural residents. 

But Mayor Michael Prue said the town tries to strike a balance between a variety of needs and wants within its limited budget and denied there was any favouritism. 

Amherstburg prioritizes road repairs using a mandated road needs study, which is carried out every five years and was last performed in 2021, said Antonietta Giofu, Amherstburg's director of infrastructure services 

Concession 6 North wasn't the worst road on the list, Prue said; it was the fifth worst. 

Concession 8 North and Concession 5 North are both slated for repair ahead of it, according to Giofu.

But Prue conceded that the 6 may have deteriorated more quickly than anticipated when it was used as a detour when Howard Avenue was closed for repairs — and says he's open to repairing it sooner, he said.

"But then again," he added, "Whoever was waiting for their road to be repaired, seeing themselves knocked back a year or two or three — I'll start getting phone calls from them."

The campaign to fix the 6 has emerged as Amherstburg town council prepares to review, this fall, its annual funding of road repairs and other infrastructure maintenance — and to make decisions about how much money to dedicate to future repairs. 

Municipalities across Ontario are facing mounting gaps between the amount of money it costs to repair and replace infrastructure and the amount of money they are actually setting aside for the projects.

Municipalities struggling with repair costs

"In Ontario, we are currently, at the local level, $44.34 billion behind in our maintenance," said Scott Butler, the executive director of Good Roads, the municipal association concerned with the quality of the province's roads. 

Butler, who grew up in Wheatley and has driven Concession 6 North, said the problem dates back to the 1990s, when the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris transferred responsibility for a number of roads from the province to the municipalities.

"At the same time," Butler said, "we've also gone through a long period of time where fiscal prudence has really been sort of the operating preference of local governments. And as a result, what we're starting to see is that those decisions to defer capital maintenance are now catching up with us."

Approximately six per cent of the roads in Amherstburg are in very poor condition, according to the town's updated asset management plan, which will go to council in September.

Eighteen per cent are in poor condition, 32 per cent are in fair condition, 21 per cent are in good condition, and 24 per cent are in very good condition. 

The town needs to set aside an estimated $20.2 million a year to maintain its tax-supported infrastructure — $6.8 million of which would go toward roads — just to prevent the road network from falling farther into disrepair, according to the plan.

It currently commits an average of $8.9 million a year to capital projects, including roads.

The plan presents council with the option to close the $11.3 million funding gap over a span of 10 years, by increasing the tax levy by an average of 2.5 per cent per year for tax-supported infrastructure maintenance. 

That would be over and above the 1.6 per cent annual increases the town has already committed to for the past three years, according to Melissa Osborne, the town's deputy chief administrative officer.

Tax increases need to be sustainable, councillor says

But if the town wants to do more than just maintain roads at a similar standard to the present, if it wants to be able to replace all of its assets at the end of their lives, it will need to set aside even more money: $24.7 million annually.

Of that, about $9.4 million would need to go to roads, according to the plan.

Amherstburg has brought in tax levies below the rate of inflation for five of the last seven years.

It has come in above the rate of inflation only in the last two budgets. 

Coun. Diane Pouget said she is open to further increases because she is concerned about the potential long-term costs of letting roads continue to deteriorate.

But she said the revenue would have to fund "needs" rather than "wants" and that any increase needs to be sustainable. 

"We have so many people that are very worried about making their next tax instalments," she said. 

"Just about a month ago the tax notices went out, and again, I was swamped with phone calls and complaints regarding that," she said. "They just can't afford to keep spending, especially our seniors that are on fixed incomes."

Prue echoed her comments.

"Everywhere I've ever been, people are in a rush, except to pay taxes," he said.

"We have to make choices, and difficult choices, every year. And we will make the one on Concession 6. … All I can ask the people is to be patient."