EDMONTON – Alberta roads are in desperate need of repair, said the president of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties.
“Right now, our ratepayers are telling us that our road infrastructure is crumbling,” Roelof Heinen told the all-Conservative agriculture standing committee.
Heinen said rural roads have been deteriorating since government cut provincial road grants by 20 percent since 1992 to reduce the deficit.
“The government may have created a hidden deficit by not keeping up the infrastructure,” Heinen told the committee one day before an infrastructure task force committee meeting chaired by premier Ralph Klein.
The province’s transportation department has said $240 million a year is needed to maintain urban and rural roads.
Heinen said the one-time $100 million added to transportation budget this year is gratefully accepted, but it is well short of the amount needed to keep the roads in shape.
“It must be recognized that a healthy road infrastructure is the single most important tool we have to generate and support the economic activity required to fund our education and health-care systems,” he said.
