A roadmap for investment in crucial infrastructure to keep the City of Belleville running and growing smoothly in future years has been approved by city council.
Mayor Mitch Panciuk says the last time council had a consultant do a formal asset management plan it served as a basic inventory of assets and infrastructure the city actually owned.
The plan approved Monday goes further.
“so now this asset management plan has gone and looked at it what it is that we own, expected lifespan, what’s it going to cost to replace, when should we start doing things. It’s really going to give a roadmap for us to understand what we have to do to keep care of that over $2 billion worth of assets that the city has.”
In 2020 dollars, the city of Belleville owns 2.3 billion dollars in assets such as water/sewer, buildings, bridges and roads. Almost 80% of those assets are either rated as in “good” or “fair” condition.
Only 10% of the city’s assets are considered in poor shape which puts Belleville in a better position than a lot of other communities in the province.
According to consultants Belleville council needs to spend $114 million a year to keep its infrastructure up to date but are spending only $55 million a year (not including money from reserves and debt). The difference of almost $60 million is known as an infrastructure deficit which is something almost every Ontario municipality has to deal with.
Municipalities own and are responsible for 60% of the country’s infrastructure but receive just 10% of total government revenues.
