Ouellette has $250-M plan to fix roads

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This article was published 15/09/2014 (4045 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayoral candidate Robert-Falcon Ouellette has a $250-million plan to fix potholes and pave the worst streets in the city.

At an announcement by Ouellette on Sunday near broken pavement at Memorial Boulevard and York Avenue, he said he wants to fix roads by borrowing money and paying off the debt with a new tax on downtown surface parking lots.

“We need something beyond Band-aid solutions,” he said. “We’re not keeping up with our infrastructure… the longer you have a pothole, the larger it grows and the more it costs to fix.”

Ouellette said his $250-million plan would be paid for by the city borrowing the entire amount with a 30-year bond — at an interest rate of about 2.57 per cent.

That, he said, means the city would have annual payments of about $12 million, to be financed by his proposed land-value tax on surface parking lots downtown. He has estimated that plan would raise $26 million by taxing 208 surface parking lots as if they were four-storey buildings.

Ouellette said he hopes to fix even more roads and infrastructure if the province and Ottawa add a combined $500 million.

“There’s no guarantee they’ll put the money in, but it’s easier to get federal and provincial governments on board when the city has skin in the game,” he said.

Ouellette also said his plan is better than those put forward by his opponents, including Judy Wasylycia-Leis’ idea to add another $60 million to the $340 million the city has already approved in the next four years, Brian Bowman’s proposal to find $10 million in internal savings and Gord Steeves’ call to freeze taxes and sell city property to finance infrastructure projects.

“We need less wishful thinking and more planning,” Ouellette said. “My plan is fully funded and is an affordable plan.”

Ouellette also promised that if elected he would improve snow clearing off streets and sidewalks, which he said would help prevent potholes, and he’d have the city buy industrial snowblowers instead of using plows and other heavy equipment that damages infrastructure.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca