Business View Magazine | March 2020

259 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MARCH 2020 SASKATCHEWAN URBAN MUNI C I PAL I T I ES ASSOC I AT ION cycles of investment do not align well with prudent asset management; many municipalities watch infrastructure decline to levels which are ultimately more expensive to fix, while waiting for the federal and provincial stars to align and provide even the opportunity to apply for a related infrastructure fund. Many projects are held “shovel ready” for years at a time, with construction costs continually escalating, for the day when funding comes through to make a project financially possible. A boom and bust cycle of infrastructure investment isn’t ideal for provincial or federal governments either, when politics are removed from the equation. Consistent federal funding could avoid wild swings between surplus and deficit, while consistently buoying the economy through construction. Provinces also wouldn’t have to struggle to accommodate unexpectedly large shares of infrastructure funding in years when their provincial economic outlook might not line up with the federal one. We need the infrastructure landscape to change. We need the way that we think about municipal infrastructure to evolve, as our municipalities are evolving to better manage and monitor their own assets. We need predictability in our funding, using a combination of tools, such as an increased gas tax fund, and long-term infrastructure funding. We also need a seat at the table, both federally and provincially, when infrastructure funding decisions, including funding pools and allocations, are being determined, to ensure that the decisions being made accurately reflect the needs of municipalities. Most of all, we need politicians to realize that all levels of government have an interest and a responsibility to support municipal services and infrastructure in municipalities of all sizes. This is often a difficult point to argue with federal politicians, who can easily see the political capital to be gained in helping farmers, or in helping what they see as “urban” municipalities—