Two for Troy

The problem isn't that the roads don't get fixed. It's that the fixes don't hold. Poor foundations, substandard work — and the bill comes back around every year. Every year the city approves capital budgets for roads. Every year residents ask why nothing improves. The answer isn't that there's no money. The answer is that the money isn't being spent — and when it is, the results don't justify the cost.

The city's own capital surplus document — Appendix A — lists $82,981,540 in money that was approved for specific named roads, water mains, and wastewater projects going back as far as 2010. Kelly Lake Road. Loach's Road. Barry Downe Road. Water treatment plants. Bridges. The work on those projects did not happen. The projects were closed. The money was never spent on what residents were told it would be spent on. That includes the infrastructure running underneath the roads — the water and wastewater pipes. When pipe work and road work aren't coordinated, the city repaves a street, then digs it up again months later. Residents see it happen. It costs double. It happens anyway.

The city's CFO, Margaret Karpenko, called the reallocation of that surplus money "a shell game." She confirmed the city is using it as cash equity toward the downtown events centre — to reduce new borrowing from $200 million. But the city already borrowed $90 million for the events centre in 2020, at 2.416% interest for 30 years. The reserves being emptied now were meant for roads, bridges, and facilities across the city. When those reserves run dry, the city will borrow again — at higher rates — to cover what was just taken. Residents pay twice: once for the rink, once for the infrastructure that was supposed to come first.

There was a better way. In 2023, the city contracted Road Surface Recycling (RSR) Ltd. for a $1.8 million hot-in-place recycling pilot on the Kingsway — a method that heats existing asphalt, reworks it on-site, and relays it without hauling in new material. Faster. Cheaper. Less waste. The contract covered 224,000 square metres. By July 2023, work stopped. Only about 24,000 square metres — roughly 11% — had been completed. The contractor said the city imposed testing requirements that weren't in the contract, delayed approvals, failed to prepare the site adequately, and that the people managing the project had conflicts of interest. RSR sued the city for $1 million and the right to finish the work. The city countersued for $4.5 million. The pilot never resumed. The Kingsway went back to the same contractors doing the same work at the same price. The city doesn't just fail to find better solutions — when a better solution shows up, it gets managed into failure.

• Milestone-based contracts: Pay contractors when work is done and verified — not for showing up. Every road contract should have payment tied to completed, inspected sections, not to time elapsed.
• A public spending dashboard: Every approved capital project posted online, with the approved amount, the amount spent to date, and the current completion status. Updated monthly. No exceptions.
• Account for the $82.9 million: The city's own Appendix A shows $82,981,540 approved for specific roads, water mains, and wastewater projects — projects that were closed without the work being done. A new mayor can demand a full public accounting: which projects were closed, where did the money go, and what gets built first with what remains.
• Direct city paving capacity: The city that controls its own equipment controls its own costs and its own schedule. Private contractors with delay clauses get paid whether the road is done or not. City crews don't.

Council needs to require milestone-based payment terms on all road contracts going forward, and direct the treasurer to provide a monthly public report on unspent capital. Neither requires new legislation. Both require political will.

Beyond that, the standard has to change: do what's best, not what's comfortable. Do what you said you would do. And actively look for better methods — not just repeat what's been done before. The hot-in-place recycling pilot is the clearest example. A cheaper, faster, proven method was brought to this city. It was managed into failure. The city walked away and went back to the expensive contracts it already knew. Change is inevitable. The only people who prefer the status quo are the ones who benefit from keeping it.

Share this page. Post it. Send it to someone who's complained about their street and never heard back. The overwhelming evidence here comes from the city's own documents — its capital surplus records, its CFO's public statements, its own court filings. Where the city's records don't speak for themselves, established media reporting from the Sudbury Star and CBC fills the gap. This isn't opinion. The frustration you're feeling is backed by the numbers, and the numbers come from them.

Then vote. The media and the insiders keep saying turnout will be low. They're counting on it. Low turnout is how nothing changes. When enough people show up, the math shifts — and the people behind the curtain can't control the outcome. Your vote is the one thing they can't manage, delay, or redirect.

Come back here. Talk about it. Submit your road concern below — your street, your ward, what you've seen. When enough people in the same area report the same problem, that becomes the public record a new council can't ignore. This site exists so the information spreads, the frustration finds its target, and the solutions get heard. What's happening behind the curtain deserves to be in the open.