4 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, April 23, 1975 Sectio Mayor Richard Relates Some of the Problems In Maintaining Roads On February 24, 1975, Mayor recognize the improvement of Garnet Rickard took part in a both the King's Highway seminar for councillors held in systems and the county roads Toronto. The seminar dealt that have been carried out with the problems involved in during the past decade. But maintaining and building what of the local roads - the roads. The mayor made the town and village streets and fllowing remarks during the the township concession afternoon panel discussion roads. One can't help feeling period. that somewhere along the line A few short years ago if I we who are responsible for, had described myself as a these grass roots systems are farmer and reeve of a rural at the bottom of the totem pole municipality, I would have left of concern. the impression of heading a The taproot of all my council which probably func- concerns is that of financing. tioned smoothly and whose After the taxes in a local greatest problem might be municipality are apportioned determining each year where to education and the county or half a mile of road construct- region we often have about 25 ion could be carried out. And per cent left for all other local that picture would not have services including roads - a been too far out of focus in the fact which, unfortunately, 1950's and early 1960's. precious few ratepayers seem Well, I an stiil a farmer and to realize. Of that 25 per cent I have spent over 20 years as the largest single slice is an elected representative and applied to our road system. in terms of expenditure and Unlike any other level of importance, roads still repre- government we have but one sent a major single category basic source from which to over which a local council can raise our share - the property exert some measure of direct tax base. control. But if anyone still We don't have the financial pictures the operation of flexibility or muscle of the almost any municipality as a province in negotiatingrev- somewhat sleepy and comfort- enue or income tax sharing able existence they need new with the federal govera- glasses. ment. We can't increase I represent an area in which license fees, fuel or sales most of the land is still rural taxes to distribute the tax and agricultural but it no burden more equitably. longer comprises just one - Even at the county or township. Througli analga- regional level current prac mations the new municipality tice provîdes a formula of Ne" 'castle includes the where financial need and former townships of Darling- abilîty are placed inbal- ton and Clarke, the town of ance. Cost sharing between Bowmanville, the former vil- the countjes and province lage of Newcastle and the has subsidy rates varying police village of Orono with an from 50 per cent to 80 per overall population of some cent recognizing the sub- 29,000 persons. stantial differences in ability I have many criticisms of of the property tax base to the positions taken by govern- Support the county road ment at all levels and I am systems throughout the going to mention a few. But I province. also feel an equal obligation to 50 my lîrst suggestion is present some ideas for solu- that a siilar approacb to that tion and I hope those ideas will used for counties and regions at least bring your reaction. be aplied at the local level - a Our council still recognizes variable subsidy rate with the provision of a good local reasonable upper and lower roa d system as one of its most limits and the actual amount basic responsibilities. We determined by need and have a system of some 500 ability to pay. miles of roads spread over an I1realize full well the count- area exceeding 200 square er-argument my suggestion miles. And sometimes I feel will probably bring forth and that it is so fundamental to our it is that both the King's individual and community Highway and the county roads economies that the majority of are of greater importance citizens simply take it for hecause of their more exten- granted. Just consider for a sive service provided. And moment, the services pro- that extensive service is vided by all levels of govern- usually expressed in terms of ment and from that group volumes. Wel,Isimply those you would rate as don't agree. I ask anyone in absolutely indispensable. this audience to tell me how Without good roads, still the you balance on milk truck that basic element of transporta- is delivering vital food to our tion in Canada, our economy larger urban centres - or a would soon be crippled and stock truck or a load of other important parts of our fertilizer for that malter - whole society quickly start to against one passenger vehicle. decay. Just as the C.P.R. and What I ar saying is that the later the Trans Canada High- yardstick of importance used way tied our nation together by highway engineers just as an economic unit so is the isn't valid in many cases. if municipal road system as we have been able to work out fundamental to the economy arrangements that reflect of our individual municipal- need and ability to pay for the ities. In commenting more couties it doesn't seem that a directly about concerns and similar approach would be solutions I wish to say that I difficuit in application to the am aware, as a citizen of this local municipalities. province, we have among the Our own municipality is best network of highways to be presently engaged in a road found in North America. One needs study which I am does not need statistics to counting on as a most helpful tool in planning our future road requirements. But I have been involved in previous - Wemdo'studies and now have a feeling that a subtle change in the provincial-municipal relationship is taking place. The e hasis seems to be ith fom studies in which mtheretil. be a partnership in the total sense - both financial , and operational- to one suggesting it is our study and in large measure the conclu- sion you can draw is that the financial consquences of any Snecessar proposais wil also in large measure be our own. Eveyoes o thagot thei AGOO SAESMA.I$A FELOW provmncae. dsbtth ai WHOCANCONINC MI WIE pinpo of fairnsgestio iust rHAT SHE LOOKSthaATaIsiila app rot ha sachae toIha C OA.ubedt forgconis -n orenions- BbYA asholid at b thealel-a PLUMING HEAING vothiatiessd priiate wih TYRONE, NTARIreasicbl underand thatfer dlueoterie of neer andk ~hone 263-2650abilit ato bpay. d ail Preci gumen ysgeto C a illpobbyerngfrtsn n Two recognizing the financial abil- ity of both parties. Oe last ooint and a few. illustrations cover what was announced a few years ago as a programme of -Horizontal Integration" among the var- ious departments of the pro- vince. My understanding of that phrase was that it meant before departments started up projects that might be in confliet with some other department there would be a better level of inter-depart- mental communication. I don't know how successful it has been with the provincial ministries but insofar as the municipalities are concerned there is a very real need for better involvement at the local level. Let me mention just a few points as they apply to and affect our road systems. (A) With the advent of county boards of education and the related changes in organiza- tion nearly every local road became a school bus route. No longer could the road superin- tendent plan such activities as winter plowing and sanding on the most economical or con- venient basis but instead the activities had to be scheduled around the pick-up and de- livery of students. Almost over night those roads became essential routes. I don't think there has been anything approaching a proper recog- nition - in terms of financial impact - resulting from that change. I am not quarrelling with the educational pro- gramme and busing but ra- ther pointing out a pro- gramme beyond the control of local council which was imple- mented without full apprecia- tion of the demand for improved road service. (B) The ministry of the Envi- ronment is encouraging cen- tral waste disposal sites. Again, a plan with which I have no basic argument. But even though these sites may service residents well beyond our individual communities no one has approached council to consider the problem related to a constant flow of heavy trucks on the local road system. (C) The Ministry of Housing is attempting to increase available units and has pro- posed a large development in one area of our muncipality. Even if that development should provide and pay for all of its internal services the questions of the impact and increased cost of maintaining and improving the system miles beyond that develop- ment still remains. (D) The Ministry of Natural Resources is, among other things, responsible for control of gravel mining and rehabil- itation. The pits and quarries act which it administers serves a worthwhile purpose from an overall standpoint. But who has examined drama- tic increases in the cost of our most basic road material - gravel? There are countless other illustrations of plans and programmes beyond the con- trol of the local municipality that seriously affect the cost of service we must provide - large development in an adjoining mumcipality which causes increased traffic but does tîothing to enlarge our assessment base, new hydro generating stations, provin- cial parks and so on. Taken as a whole I arn saying that the process of integration should not stop at the provincial departments. It must be carried down the scale to the local council before a decision is made, so that the respon- sible parties can be aware of our real concern before and not after the fact. So my last suggestion is that the role of the municipal branch of the Ministry of Transportation and Commun- ications be altered from that of basically allocating subsi- dies and providing some technical assistance to ass- ume responsibility for two way liaison between the var- ious ministries and the coun- cils of local municipalities. A prime objective of that new role would be to examine the projects of other ministries primarily from a standpoint of any adverse impact upon the municipal road system. I would like to think that given such a new responsibility the branch could in fact serve as our municinal friend in court. Smooth Change-over To 5% Ont. Sales Tax The genie that changed the Ontario retail sales tax from seven to five per cent seems to have accomplished his task with a minimum of fuss and bother. The change took place Monday night at 12 midnight and is expected to be in effect until Dec. 31, 1975. Shop-keepers reported little difficulty in making the chan- ges on Tuesday morning. According to Willi Bons of Cowan Pontiac-Buick, 166 King St. E., their staff held a meeting after the changes were announced and have encountered no problems whatsoever. She said some people have asked for dis- counts on purchases up to April 8. On a $5000 car the difference would be $100. Other Bowmanville shop- keepers report that the cu- stomers don't seem to be too aware of the changes yet, except on large purchases. The Ontario treasurer esti- mates the retail tax cut is worth $330 million for the remainder of 1975. Of this, $230 million will go to consumers, $50 million to industry and $50 million to construction and housing. In addition, business gener- ally will get an easement of $11 million in the collection of' the retail sales tax for the government. Sellers will be able to retain up to $500 a year to compen- sate them for their expenses. Limited Specializing In CUSTOM BUILT KITCHEN CABINETS and VANITIES FREE ESTIMATES Telephone 623-2056 161 Baseline East, Unit 2 Bowmanville , Ontario