EDITORIAL: Why Canada’s public infrastructure is failing

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Torrential rains walloped Toronto on Tuesday, turning major roadways into rivers, causing massive traffic jams, huge power outages, disrupting public transit, flooding homes and businesses and sending raw sewage into the streets from overflowing sanitary sewers.

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But in a broader sense, it was just Toronto’s turn because cities across Canada are experiencing the same natural and man-made disasters not just this summer, but year-round, with increasing frequency.

Politicians like to blame it all on climate change but the underlying problem is Canada’s massive public infrastructure deficit, resulting from decades of neglect by federal, provincial and municipal governments when it comes to maintaining public infrastructure in a state of good repair.

Statistics Canada last year estimated the cost of replacing public infrastructure such as crumbling roads, bridges, tunnels and water infrastructure either in “poor” “or “very poor” condition at $264.7 billion as of 2020; or $16,252 per private dwelling in Canada.

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“Poor” condition means failure is likely and substantial work is required in the short term because the asset is barely serviceable, although there is no immediate risk to public safety.

“Very poor” condition means major work or replacement is urgently required because of an immediate need to replace most or all of the asset due to health and safety hazards, which present a potential risk to public safety, or the service cannot be operated without risk to personnel.

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The survey also found another $195.7 billion is potentially required to replace public infrastructure where the conditions of the assets are not known.

All of this excludes the cost of bringing social and affordable housing across Canada up to a state of good repair.

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None of these problems are new.

Long before climate change became a buzzword, federal, provincial and municipal governments failed to ensure publicly-financed projects such as roads, highways, bridges, public transit, dikes, water and sewer mains, hospitals and other public infrastructure were properly maintained after they were built.

All those bills are coming due now and they help to explain why “Canada is broken” in a real-world sense as opposed to a rhetorical one.

It’s also why we need to start paying much more attention to the other method of addressing climate change in addition to mitigation, which is adaptation.

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