Township of Scugog Ontario

4 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 12 of a two-tier municipality, the region of Durham takes charge of water and sewer upgrades, leaving Scugog to primarily focus on maintaining existing infrastructure. Coleman underscores the significant challenges the township faces, particularly in the condition of its roads, which is a major concern for residents. In her words, “We have a significant deficit in the maintenance of critical infrastructure, including roads and bridges. Our equipment that we use to deal with the maintenance of these facilities is older and needs replacement. Our facilities are also in poor condition and a lot of work is needed there.” The main issue stems from the townships large geographic area which includes 413 kilometers of road, coupled with a relatively small tax base due to limited growth within the Greenbelt area. Scugog is committed to addressing these challenges, implementing a dedicated roads levy nine years ago, along with vehicle and equipment levies and building and facilities levies. “We’re putting money towards these things, and we’re starting to see improvements,” Coleman says. “It’s a lot on our taxpayers, but it’s working. We’ve also looked at other ways to try to save money, by looking for efficiencies, and looking for grants from other levels of government, which we’ve had some success with.” Ken Nix, CAO of Scugog Township, communicates the importance of reliable internet, which is equivalent to other essential utilities. He points out, “Ours is largely a rural community, and farmers nowadays need access to internet, for anything from plowing the fields to accessing the markets. It’s as critical for a farmer, as it is for any business in town, to have that capacity.” Sharing that the municipality has identified several areas with underdeveloped internet infrastructure, he adds, “We’re lucky there have been grants, that Rogers was successful in obtaining, to help fill in a number of the gaps. We’re supporting Rogers in terms of installing the fiber to households.” The township’s efforts are supported by the Region of Durham’s development of a municipal services corporation to provide internet to areas not covered by Rogers.