Liabilities for infrastructure repair and maintenance are now on the books. A considerable backlog in infrastructure maintenance has become visible in municipalities across the country. These can no longer be put in the accounting Tardis and thrust into the future. Not even beyond the next municipal elections.
As Mayors, councilors, municipal staff and consultants from across the country in Regina this week, the Frontier Centre has an opinion piece in the Financial Post which lays out the magnitude of the fiscal challenge surrounding municipal infrastructure.
Despite the claims that cities just don’t have enough money, we argue that the previous approach of cash accounting for long term infrastructure made neglect inevitable.
