Quote:
Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue
$400M? With 101/59 pegged at $204M, at least MI can spend half of that finishing up 100/59, 100/Ste Anne’s and 100/St Mary’s.  |
I guess the one thing I don't know is how Manitoba Infrastructure finances roadway construction. If the total cost of redoing the south perimeter is pegged at say, $600 million (just as a random guess), I don't think they aren't going to plunk down $600 million in cash straight from their operating budget to finance the entire thing at once, not to mention it would likely take a decade or two to get all the work done.
If the province finances infrastructure projects say, through 30 year bonds (as is typical in municipal finance), then over the course of 30 years the province will instead pay annual payments to debt finance the entire thing. Under current conditions, the province might pay down 2% annually in principal and another 7% in interest, the annual payments on $600 million worth of debt over 30 years might be around $54 million annually.
Therefore if the province were to finance the entire thing through debt, it might only add $54 million to debt servicing charges for the next 30 years. But I'm not entirely sure how financing infrastructure projects works at the provincial level, but if it's anything like I've just outlined, it's probably more feasible than I originally thought.