On foul policy

While Vancouver and Toronto appear to have respectively neglected and contracted their way to sewage disposal problems, the CP reports that smaller communities are facing a severe cash crunch trying to keep their sewer infrastructure in reasonable repair:

(D)eteriorating and outdated plumbing leaves (rural municipalities who rely on septic systems) vulnerable to the risk of raw sewage seeping into rivers and storm drains that could poison water systems.

"Sewage is coming up out of the ground. Kids are playing in it," said Ken Oke, a councillor for the municipality of South Huron, which needs to install a sewer system for two of its villages.

"Their animals are walking through it. There's E.coli in the municipal drains."

One of the options for each smaller municipality is to take a five-figure bite out of each of its residents in order to fund everything on the local level. But a group of municipalities is banding together to recognize where the problem originated, and who has the resources to better address it:

(A) number of municipalities have banded together under the banner Fair Funding for Small Communities in Ontario...

The group wants the two top levels of government to change the way they fund infrastructure projects, arguing not enough attention is paid to the needs of small communities.

"We just don't have a voice," said Ralph Kreutzwiser, chairman of the group and mayor of South Bruce, where the hamlets of Formosa and Teeswater need $21 million to lay sewer lines for about 900 homes...

Ontario estimates its infrastructure deficit is at more than $100 billion.

After years of ignoring infrastructure, it's coming home to roost, said Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal David Caplan.

"As budgets were restrained or as there were pressures...capital and infrastructure were often the first areas that were cut," he said, adding that the projects were usually "out of sight and out of mind."

Considering that the Cons are supposedly working on a fix to the fiscal imbalance, now would be a great time for a concerted municipal/provincial push to ensure that the added burden that was placed on municipalities throughout the '90s gets addressed with proper funding today - no matter how eager the Cons are to pretend it's not their problem. After all, a few dollars in tax cuts will surely become a rather hollow gain for those who would otherwise face a five-figure municipal bill to make up for a history of downloading.