While other municipalities throughout Canada may be in dire need of new roads or sewage systems, Burnaby's primary need is affordable housing, according to Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan.
"The main problems that we suffer from are housing issues and the lack of investment in housing, and the fact that we're not able to achieve a balance in housing alternatives within our city," he said. "And that's, I think, common to Vancouver and New Westminster, too, is that we're struggling with the issue of affordability and we're trying to find ways to deal with that."
Corrigan was discussing the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' request for a 20-year federal plan with sustainable funding to deal with crumbling infrastructure across Canada.
The federation put forward its recommendations in response to Infrastructure Canada's consultations on a long-term infrastructure plan.
"The issue of the infrastructure deficit right across Canada is huge. It's one I think every municipal politician is concerned about, whether it's roads and bridges or it's sewer or water infrastructure, or it's housing in your community," Corrigan said. "There's just such a massive deficit of government investment both at the federal and provincial level, that it makes it extremely difficult for municipalities to remain successful in looking after their communities."
The cost of covering infrastructure ultimately goes to the taxpayers in the form of property taxes, he pointed out.
"You've got municipal taxpayers screaming about the increases in property taxes and the fact that they don't want to see any more burden placed on their homes," he said. "It makes it a very difficult thing for us to do. We have the pressure of all of the social issues that arise in our community but we don't have the resources available to us to be able to do anything about it, and I think all of us are very concerned about it."
The cost of wastewater treatment infrastructure for Metro Vancouver is about $1.5 billion, he said.
"That's beyond the means of our residential homeowners to be able to absorb on their property taxes," he added. "You've got to have provincial and federal government participation."
Burnaby has been successful in maintaining most of its infrastructure but also has to pay its portion for Metro Vancouver infrastructure costs, Corrigan said.
"We've already paid for our sewage treatment plant at Annacis (Island). We have a little bit we're going to have to pay for the sewage treatment at Iona (Island) but we've been pretty good at looking after those areas," he said.
Corrigan said he thinks the federal government needs to reprioritize its spending to maintain infrastructure throughout the country.
"Rather than putting that $35 billion into fighter planes, wouldn't you think it would be smart for you to take that money and put it into local communities? That's what we're suggesting," he said.
The fact that municipalities are in agreement about the need for secure infrastructure funding shows what an important issue it is, Corrigan said.
"It's not often that you get politicians at municipal levels speaking with one voice across Canada," he added.
"We don't expect that all of this can be accomplished tomorrow but we've got to set up a strategy to be able to deal with it or we're just going to hand this over to the next generation without any way for them to be able to cope," Corrigan said.
Roads, wastewater, water and storm water systems across the country need to be repaired, according to the federation's president, Edmonton Coun. Karen Leibovici.
The federation wrote an infrastructure report card a few months ago that found more than 50 per cent of municipal roads in Canada are in need of repair and about one-third of the water systems and wastewater systems need repairing, as well, she said.
Municipalities need sustainable federal and provincial or territorial funding to maintain infrastructure, she added.
"We know that municipalities own about 60 per cent of infrastructure, of all the infrastructure in this country, and we receive only eight cents on the tax dollar," Leibovici said. "We can't do this alone - we have to have help from the federal government as well as the provincial/territorial governments, to bring our infrastructure up to a standard that is acceptable to be able to move goods and service across this country."
The federation is asking that the government move away from application-based funding and make funding more predictable across the country.
Municipalities also want the government to increase municipal infrastructure funding, bringing it up to $5.75 billion per year, according to a federation press release.
Infrastructure Canada conducted consultations with provinces, territories, the federation and other stakeholders over the summer as part of its work to develop a long-term infrastructure plan, according to its website.
