The Challenge Confronting Municipalities

Every year, North American municipalities are asked to deliver more while spending less, despite the unrelenting increases in energy and facility management costs.  Budgets are becoming harder and harder to balance, and normally the only two choices each municipal council faces are either to delay projects or to raise taxes, with neither alternative being attractive. Often the much-needed energy efficiency and infrastructure projects are just delayed.  

 

In Canada, the challenge facing municipalities is staggering.  In May 2015, the Canadian Union of Public Employees reported the following in an article: “Municipalities are responsible for construction, operations and maintenance for 53 per cent of our nation’s public infrastructure, but collect just eight cents of every tax dollar paid in Canada…. This leaves municipalities highly dependent on the taxes and fees they are allowed to collect—such as property taxes and user fees—while struggling with a more than $120 billion infrastructure deficit….Federal and provincial transfers are provided largely for capital investments and they don’t address increasing pressures on operations and maintenance.”

(Source: Municipal Financing and Fair Taxes; see http://cupe.ca/sites/cupe/files/municipal_revenues_e.pdf )

 

Another Pressing Issue

Brian Bowman, Mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba, said in an interview in late 2016: “One of the most pressing issues among major cities is the development of new infrastructure funding models to modernize the ways that cities fund themselves.” Managing public infrastructure is very challenging for Canadian municipalities.  It is time for a completely new approach.

 

The Solution Is…

The IGNITE Sustainable Communities Program, which was created by IGNITE Infrastructure Association Inc for its members, is the New Way Forward for municipalities to manage public infrastructure.  The flexibility, structure, scalability, and collaborative nature of the IGNITE Program allow the municipality to:

• Do what’s best for the community
• Develop a sustainable, long-term infrastructure plan approach
• Take control of infrastructure costs
• Provide cost certainty for infrastructure operation and maintenance
• Remove many barriers from long-term corporate planning
• Address environmental issues

 

For more information on the IGNITE Sustainable Communities Program, contact us by phone or email.