Edmonton continues to struggle to build much needed new infrastructure, while existing infrastructure continues to age and deteriorate. Most noticeably, crumbling roads and sidewalks are making many of our neighbourhoods dangerous and, for those who are mobility challenged, virtually impassable.

This problem is not an easy one to solve. By choosing in the 90's to focus on paying down our debt and keeping tax increases to near zero we have transferred that debt into our infrastructure. It is no secret that the costs of dealing with it now will be much higher than they would have been ten years ago.

To delay any longer will only worsen the problem. We must continue to argue strongly with the provincial and federal governments to return the funding that they pulled out of the municipalities in the 90's. But as a city we must also be prepared to make the tough decisions and recommit both to borrowing and some tax increases. We must remember that borrowing for capital expenditure is very different from the foolhardy choice of borrowing for operational costs. It also allows us to spread the cost of the infrastructure out over the years we will be using it.

We must also start to make choices about the growth of this city that mean that our resources can go to repairng what we have rather than expansion.

Most imprtantly we must recognize that if we want people living in the heart of our city we must be prepared to provide an acceptable level of service and this means infrastructure that is in good repair. Much of our city is already beyond that point.