Charlottetown struggling to spend money budgeted for streets, sidewalks

Charlottetown councillors are worried sidewalks, streets and other crucial infrastructure in the city is falling into disrepair while the money budgeted for those projects is going unspent.

During discussions on the coming year's capital budget at a meeting Monday night, councillors learned that more than $100 million council approved over the last five years for capital budgets has been left unspent.

"We're not going to do sidewalks, we're not going to do street paving, or very little of it … It makes no sense to me," said Coun. Terry Bernard.

"Public works is really the heartbeat of the city."

Bernard was concerned that the 2024-25 budget, proposed at $55.7 million, is $10 million lower than it was for 2023-24. Chief financial officer Dan Jenkins responded that staff is just trying to be realistic.

"Just budgeting for it didn't get the work done," said Jenkins.

"We're trying to bring those numbers a little closer together and be better at projecting what we're actually going to be able to accomplish."

The city's troubles with keeping up with the budget started in the first year of the pandemic and the gap has grown larger since then, driven in part by a shortage of construction workers in the province.

Coun. Mitchell Tweel said the city is falling behind with infrastructure, and that will lead to other problems.

"For example, no money for sidewalks where we need sidewalks and in terms of repairs, what you're going to find is you're going to be faced with lawsuits," said Tweel, adding that the streets are in terrible shape due to increased traffic.

"If we're going to increase the population, and this is the wishes of the [federal] and the provincial government, then they have to come to the table."

Councillors heard details of other capital budget plans during the meeting as well.

Those include: