Saint John’s finance committee has approved the 2019 draft capital budgets, even though there are still five months left in the year.
But you will not see many new infrastructure projects popping up in the city next year.
Staff are proposing nearly $26 million worth of projects — which you can see by clicking here — and most of that money will be used to replace existing assets.
Only three new projects are being proposed as part of the capital budget: $1.4 million of previously committed money for the new Exhibition Field House, $200,000 for expanding existing playgrounds or building new ones, and $62,000 for 10 new pay-by-plate parking meter machines.
Coun. David Merrithew, who chairs the committee, said the city can’t afford a lot of new assets because it cannot sustain what it already has.
“We’ve have got almost half-a-billion dollars of assets that are beyond their life already,” said Merrithew. “I don’t know how some of these things are going, how they’re still working, and those are the things we’ve gotta worry about fixing.”
City battles massive infrastructure deficit
The capital budget includes about $7 million for roads but Coun. Donna Reardon questioned if that is sustainable given the city’s massive infrastructure deficit, which stands at over $430 million.
Reardon said she would be open to decommissioning roads if needed and Merrithew said she has a point.
“We have that many lane kilometres, is there something that we can do in that regard,” he said. “Maybe it’s not decommissioning roads, maybe it’s decommissioning something else.”
In order to reduce the city’s overall debt, Merrithew said they are limiting their borrowing for capital projects to $12 million a year and are no longer borrowing for projects that will not be owned by the city.
The city plans on borrowing just shy of $12 million next year for capital projects, with the rest coming from gas tax, reserves and other government funding.
Council still has to give the final stamp of approval on the budgets and that could happen next week.
