II. Transportation

Assets in this category include the following:

•  Paved Roads

•  Unpaved Roads

•  Sidewalks

•  Curbs

•  Bicycle Paths

•  Bridges

•  Overpasses

•  Road cleaning and snow-removal equipment and facilities

As of 2000, transportation and public transit infrastructure made up approximately 55 per cent of Canada's municipal infrastructure stock.

Much of the existing transportation systems in Canada, particularly the roads and highways built in the 1950s and 1960s, have reached the end of their service life and need to be replaced. Much of the newer transportation infrastructure also needs immediate attention due to a backlog of deferred maintenance over the years. According to Statistics Canada, "Governments have boosted the flow of investment in roads from $4.3 billion in 1998 to $7.3 billion in 2005, but this has barely offset the erosion of the road system."23

The 2007 FCM-McGill survey indicates that municipalities need an additional $21.7 billion to maintain and upgrade existing transportation infrastructure assets.

The 1996 FCM-McGill survey considered roads, sidewalks, bridges and curbs as part of the transportation infrastructure category. The average cost to replace these was reported as $384 per capita for all population groups considered. Based on the new $21.7 billion figure for the infrastructure deficit in this category, this number has almost doubled rising to $686 per capita. As expected, the larger municipalities (with populations greater than one million) account for 65 per cent of this need.

There is also a significant need for investment in new transportation infrastructure of $28.5 billion. In this case, smaller municipalities accounted for approximately 38 per cent of this need, confirming the need for more transportation networks and associated facilities in rural and northern communities, among other smaller municipalities.

Figure 6
Municipal Infrastructure Deficit: Growth by Category

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23  Statistics Canada, "From Roads to Risks: Government Spending on Infrastructure in Canada, 1961 -2005," Canadian Economic Observer (2007), p. 3.6.