Infrastructure financing a significant challenge

BY MARVIN ROSS The Business Executive

Glen Murray

BURLINGTON — With a rapid-fire delivery, Glen Murray listed most of the problems facing communities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe in his keynote address launching the Building Complete Communities Summit. The Canadian Urban Institute and the Region of Halton hosted the one-day conference that brought together politicians and civil servants from all three levels of government in the GTA/Hamilton area at the Burlington Convention Centre.

Murray is president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute and was mayor of Winnipeg from 1998 to 2004. The purpose of the gathering was to bring together the main players to explore new ways to pay for sustainable growth. In his written statement, Murray said that the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region will experience rapid population and employment growth over the next quarter century. Financing the infrastructure needed to accommodate this growth presents a significant challenge that can be overcome only if all three levels of government co-operate.

The economic competitiveness of the region depends on the creation of vibrant and sustainable complete communities but, in his speech, he pointed out that we are well behind other countries in accomplishing this goal.

In an interview with The Business Executive after his presentation, he stated that the main ideas that he wants to emphasize are the need to encourage conservation, to provide for an aging population and to learn how to relate successfully to a new population who may not always be English speaking.

“We need an economy that is human not plant based,” he said. “Our communities must emphasize the creative, universities and research and we need to connect them all. Areas that are not car-centric but are walkable and, with restaurants and shops, are more attractive to the young and the old alike, and the close proximity of services improves the quality of the community.

“We cannot continue to use a litre of gas in order to purchase a litre of milk,” he said. TBE

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