Grey County has developed a program whereby some roads currently managed by
municipalities would be transferred to the County, and a number of roads that are the
responsibility of Grey County would be shifted to the municipalities.
Beyond the basic question of why such a proposal was developed, our real concern is that inadequate analysis of the financial impacts has been conducted and shared publicly. Not being clear on the cost impact of the road swaps makes it impossible to judge them appropriately.
A couple of specific issues we’ve identified:
To our understanding, a road that is the responsibility of West Grey and in need of multi million-dollar bridge repairs is recommended to be assigned to the County. Would this mean that TBM would have to assume 30% of the cost for those bridge repairs in the future, consistent with our share of the County tax levy? That could be millions of dollars pulled from our budget and sent to the County.
Also, the section of Bruce Street that leads into Clarksburg is slated to become our Town’s responsibility. The bridge on that stretch is decades old, and its repair when required will be an extremely expensive undertaking. Will the County be transferring sufficient reserves to our Town to cover those costs that we will ultimately incur?
It does not seem that sufficient engineering work has been conducted to get a handle on future capital spending requirements related to the transfers.
Given the uncertainty regarding the details of the road swap and potentially dramatic TBM funding impacts, on February 11 we sent an email (attached) to our Grey County Council representatives, Mayor Matrosovs and Deputy Mayor Bordignon. In it, we ask for clarity regarding their position on the proposed swap. In simple terms, if it is not obvious that the roads program would be of net benefit to the TBM, why would it be considered by our representatives? DM Bordignon confirmed that he will be pursuing answers to those important questions. We appreciate his responsiveness.
As an update, it was reported in the February 13 edition of Collingwood Today, that
County Council voted at their February 12 meeting to pause the road swap plan, but not to cancel it. The story stated, “Councillors express consternation and concern that local councils do not have enough information about road exchange plan slated to be
complete in July”. This seems a step in the right direction, but begs the question - why
had our TBM members of County Council not sounded the alarm earlier?
We will monitor this initiative as it progresses over the next few months, and keep our
members informed of the decisions that are made and what it will mean for TBM.
