Backgrounders

Municipal infrastructure provides the foundations on which our economy rests. Yet today, those foundations are buckling under the strain. 

In Budget 2011, the federal government made an important commitment to work with municipalities, provinces and territories, and the private sector to develop a new, long-term plan to stop the long decline in Canada's aging municipal infrastructure. By working together, governments can build the roads, bridges, water and transit systems we need to support families, businesses and economic growth. The federal government has said it will have new infrastructure programs in place in time for the 2014 construction season. To meet that deadline, the new plan must be part of the 2013 federal budget. 

The new national wastewater regulations announced on July 18th 2012 establish newnational standards for Canada's more than 3,500 wastewater treatment systems. Over the next three decades, the regulations will require communities to substantially upgrademore than one out of every four wastewater treatment systems across the country.

The State of Canada's Cities and Communities 2012 surveys the national challenges playing out in the places Canadians live, work, and raise their families.

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Municipalities struggle with the costs arising telcos accessing the municipal ROW. It isthe property taxpayer that ends up paying for these subsidies.  The facts illustrate theimportance of creating fair and lasting solutions for our cities and communities.

In 2009, the tide turned, in a new CRTC ruling on MTS Allstream v. Vancouver, which provideda much clearer guide to the costs that municipalities can recover from telecommunicationscompanies that are accessing municipal ROW and engaging in various construction activitieswhich require municipal oversight, approval and monitoring.

Most recent immigrants are struggling to catch up with other Canadians, while underfunded municipalities are struggling to meet the day-to-day needs of newcomers and respond to changing patterns in immigrant settlement. These are among the principal insights of the fifth theme report in the Quality of Life series.