Fill potholes with Hydro Ottawa surplus, committee proposes

If Hydro Ottawa earnsmore money than expectedin 2018, the City of Ottawa's finance committee wants to spend the windfall filling potholes.

The committee agreed Tuesday to spend two-thirds of the surplus dividend it receives from the utility company on road resurfacing. The remaining one-third would go toward environmentally sustainableinitiatives, including energy-conservingretrofits.

"These are areas where one-time money can do some good," saidCoun. KeithEgli, chair of the transportation committee.

There's no guarantees how much surplus Hydro Ottawa will post in 2018, if any. Thisyear the city started receiving a guaranteed dividend of $20 million from the utility, with a surplus of $600,000 expected by the end of the year.

A drop in the bucket

But even $600,000 is a relative drop in the bucket compared to what the city spends on road resurfacing and repairs.

While the 2018 draft budget proposes a $5.5-million increase to the road budget, that'sstill $9 million short of what the city had to spend in 2017 to fill potholes and resurface roads.

• Ball in council's court as infrastructure gap goes unchecked

Several councillors said the main thing they heard from their constituents during budget consultations was that the city needs to do a better job maintaining its roads.

Councilput millions of extra dollars into road repair this year. Some councillorsblameda particularly nasty freeze-thaw cycle forthe high number of potholes in early 2017, but others point to a major gap in maintenance funding.

The city is already spending $70 million less per year than it needs to keep its roads in tip-top shape.

Not taking care of basics

Coun. Diane Deans said the fact that council is talking about using such a small amount as the Hydro surplusfor roads is"just indicative of how serious the problem has become."

She said she would rather spend the money on forward-thinking projects, but it's hard to look ahead when the roads are in disrepair.

"You have to take care of the basics, and we aren't taking care of our basics," Deans said.

The committee also approved a one-time$5-million payment to help close that gap as part of the draft finance and economic development budget.

City council will vote on the proposed 2018 budget Dec. 13.