Sudbury infrastrucure maintenance backlog balloons to $1.4 B: auditor general

Sudbury faces aninfrastructure maintenance backlog that the city's auditor general estimates has ballooned to $1.4 billion.

Upgrades to buildings, maintaining and upgrading the city's fleet of vehicleand other assets form the bulk of thatnumber, said auditor general Ron Foster.

• READ: Greater Sudbury Auditor General's Audit of Long Term Financial Planning

Councillor Lynne Reynolds asked her colleagues to support a request to hold a special meeting about borrowing money to finance some of the city's projects including infrastructure repairs.

"We will be looking at a motion on debt for development to address that and to look at it and to look at what the benefits are and what the opportunities are," Reynolds said.

But councillor RobertKirwansaid the city should first examine the way it conducts business.

"Some council is going to have to stop and say, 'We have to change something,'"Kirwansaid.

"If we're not going to get the money, we have to change the way we're doing operations because we're already just with roads and water, wastewater a billion dollars behind."

The backlog is expected to be discussed at Tuesday's audit committee meeting.

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