No road funding in Cape Breton budget

Cape Breton regional council approved a budget on March 27 that has no money for new road construction.

SYDNEY, N.S.

Cape Breton regional council approved a budget on March 27 that has no money for new road construction.

Mayor Cecil Clarke says the decision was among the difficult choices the Cape Breton Regional Municipality must make in order to balance its books.

The approved operating budget totalled $140.1 million. It included $19.3 million in capital projects, but none of that is for road construction, with only asphalt patch jobs approved for this year.

Clarke recently presented a $300-million capital plan to address infrastructure needs, for which he hopes to receive support from the federal and provincial governments.

Clarke says if Ottawa and the province don’t sign off on the capital plan, the municipality will have to look at increasing taxes.