By John Francis
In the last issue of this paper, I explored the level of service Bruce County’s roads network provides. I pointed out that no community bigger than about ten houses is more than a few kilometres from a County Road.
Except in Northern Bruce Peninsula.
This time I’ll look at the County budget, Northern Bruce Peninsula’s contribution to said budget and whether we’re getting our fair share in return. (Spoiler alert: NO.)
Bruce County Roads maintains 691 kilometres of roads (and 148 bridges) of which a bit under 32 kilometres are in Northern Bruce Peninsula. Specifically, that’s: the East Road, from the MNBP/SBP boundary near Hope Bay to Everatt Sideroad in Lion’s Head, the Ferndale Road/County Road 9 from Lion’s Head across to the West Road/Stokes Bay Road and the West Road from there to the SBP boundary at Shanty Lane.
The other seven municipalities in Bruce County share 659 kilometres of County Road, which works out to an average of 94 km each.
So it’s not an illusion — we really are getting the short end of the stick, by about 62 km of road.
And it’s not like our sections of County Road are special or more expensive to maintain. There are no large bridges, no traffic signals, no extra lanes. In fact, a significant chunk of the West Road isn’t even paved. (Nor very well maintained, as you can see in the picture.)
What would the value be for the missing 62 kilometres of County Road? How would you calculate it?
As it happens, Bruce County has published its 2025 Budget Report. It’s even available online. (Warning: it’s 275 pages long and very confusing.)
A pie chart on page 17 shows that “Transportation and Environmental Services” accounts for 27% of the County budget. This number includes forestry and the County’s trail network, but the road network is far and away the main expense.
A chart on page 95 of the report gives the 2025 budget for Transportation and Environmental Services as $19,471,257. Divide that by 691 and you get $28,178 per kilometre of road in 2025.
So our 62 kilometres of phantom County Road represent a lost value of approximately $1,747,036 for 2025. It should be noted that the County’s Transportation budget is slated to increase by 11% next year and 21% in 2026, so the stakes are rising quickly.
The current value of our 32 kilometres of County Road (at $28,178 per km) is nominally $901,696 for 2025. That’s barely 10% of the nearly $9 million we will send to Bruce County, rather than the 27% it should be.
So a Cost Compensation Grant of $1,747,257 would settle the matter for this year. Or the County could take over 62 kilometres of municipal roads which would put their expenditures very close to 27%.
What might 62 kilometres of new County Road look like?
The East Road continues north of Lion’s Head as Isthmus Bay Road, 40 Hills Road and then the East Road again. That’s 20.8 kilometres of road that provides an alternative to Hwy 6.
Dyers Bay Road, from Hwy 6 to the south edge of the village is 9.6 kilometres.
Stokes Bay Road and Ira Lake Road provide access to several hundred dwellings and offer an alternative to Hwy 6 on the west side (15.3 kilometres).
Then Johnston Harbour Road/Dorcas Bay Road serve about 500 dwellings and provide an alternative to Hwy 6 (19.5 kilometres).
That’s a total of 65.2 kilometres, and would provide local service to thousands of dwellings — and important emergency alternatives to Hwy 6.
It’s a useful way to look at how dramatically we are being short-changed. A cost compensation grant of $2 million a year would go a long way towards rectifying things.
Fun Fact: in a presentation to MNBP Council in Sept, 2023 justifying the County’s “Development Charge” of $7,665 per new house, 82% of the revenue was earmarked for “Services Related to a Highway”.
It seems the numbers dance around quite a bit.
