City Wings It On Infrastructure: BENN

Would you board a cross Atlantic flight if you knew there was only enough fuel to get you one-third of the way? Ottawa’s finance committee just voted 9-2 for you to do that.

The city needs about $3.8 billion over the next decade to fix or replace just the elements that staff consider to be critical elements of infrastructure. This being just more than a third of the about $10.8-billion shortfall identified in the master infrastructure plan. Not to worry, staff have presented what passes for a plan on how to raise $1.2 billion … an amount that represents either just less than a third of the required funds for the critical elements, or just more than one-10th of the overall requirement.