'We would bankrupt the county'
Councillors insist federal and provincial grants needed to pay $56 million cost of Campbellford bridge
Northumberland County can’t afford to build the new bridge in Campbellford, which will cost at least $56 million.
Councillors reached that conclusion on Monday, Nov. 10 during discussions on the county’s 2026 budget.
“It’s safe to say the project can’t go ahead without federal and/or provincial funding assistance,” said Warden Brian Ostrander, mayor of Brighton.
Ostrander noted that the 2026 budget includes $10 million in capital spending for the bridge: “That gets us about one-fifth of a bridge and that’s not how we build bridges.”
Deputy Warden Olena Hankivsky, mayor of Port Hope, asked whether the county should be spending any money on the bridge project until it knows it has provincial and federal support. “We would bankrupt the county without that funding.”
Ostrander argued the county must complete the design work and have the project shovel-ready in order to get consideration from the higher levels of government. “But I don’t think there is anyone in this room who would put a shovel in the ground without knowing we have money from our federal and provincial friends.”
“What will happen when real costs are higher than the budget,” Hankivsky asked later. “Cost overruns would put us in a precarious position.”
In the end, councillors agreed to complete the design work and get the project ready to go. The 2026 budget for that is $2.9 million, which includes property acquisition.
As I wrote in August, the councillors had sticker shock when they heard the revised cost estimate was almost three times higher than the original. Now, they have recovered from the shock and appear ready to put on the brakes rather than go alone.
Jennifer Moore, then the chief administrative officer, warned in August that council was soon approaching a point where it would have to decide whether to go ahead.
The county has been slow walking the design process over the past couple of years hoping that provincial or federal programs would become available, but that hasn’t happened. Public Works Director Denise Marshall said the design is 90 per cent done and will be completed early in the new year.
Work is underway to move natural gas lines on the east side of the Trent River and the county has permission to demolish two homes.
The county has spent a lot of time and effort lobbying provincial and federal representatives for money but has had no luck so far and there are no firm prospects in view.
The irony is that the reason the county can’t afford to do necessary bridge and roadwork is that it is spending so much money in other areas that have been downloaded by the province – such as paramedicine, outpatient clinics, and physician recruitment.
The biggest cost hitting the budget is the new Golden Plough Lodge, a long-term care home in Cobourg. Starting in 2026 the county must start paying a construction loan it took out for the facility. That alone would send the county’s property tax bill up 4.5 per cent. Since council was determined to keep the tax increase below 5 per cent it was forced to cut most everywhere else.
A final decision on the 2026 budget could be made on Wednesday. Councillors wanted to see a prioritized list of capital spending projects before passing a final motion.
“We need a better financial regime,” Ostrander said last week when he kicked off the meeting. “Our tax system was designed 250 years ago and was never meant to finance things we do.”
“We should be spending $30 million a year on infrastructure but we’re not,” said Finance Director Matthew Nitsch. This means our roads are getting worse and worse, he added.
If you are wondering, Mayor Bob Crate didn’t speak on the bridge topic and he didn’t say anything back in August either. Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland, who was vocal in August was unusually quiet last week.
You can watch the budget discussion online here. The Campbellford bridge is discussed at about the two hour and five minutes mark.
Notes: Special thanks to my friend Roxie, a regular reader and world traveller who spotted the Cape Town bridge and noticed a parallel to our local efforts. Also, you may have wondered why I didn’t write about this meeting last week when it happened. I was in Greece on vacation, visiting ancient ruins and seeing what eventually happens to the bridges and buildings we spend so much time and effort on. They end up as rubble in a few thousand years.
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