Item - 2022.EX34.42

The Executive Committee recommends that:

1. City Council receive for information, the Ontario Good Roads Summary Annual General Conference and Meeting (June 27, 2022) from Councillor Paul Ainslie, Ward 24, Scarborough-Guildwood.

As one of two appointees to the Board of Directors of Good Roads, representing the City of Toronto, I would like to present the following summary of the Annual General Conference and Meeting.

To those not familiar with Good Roads, it is a municipal association concerned with the advancement of roads and other infrastructure in Ontario. Based in Oakville, Ontario, they have been devoted to the cause of better roads since 1894. Originally known as the Ontario Good Roads Association (and still using this name corporately), they have more than 450 member governments, including most of Ontario’s municipalities and a growing number of First Nations, as well as dozens of affiliated corporate members in the transportation and infrastructure sectors. Their purpose, in part, is to connect members to each other, to other levels of government, and to relevant companies in the private sector. Members look to Good Roads for training, knowledge, political advocacy, and answers to their most pressing problems. Good Roads is resolutely independent.

Four key goals for the upcoming year were established by membership at the conference:

1. Gas Tax

Good Roads is undertaking a study which will examine the future of the Gas Tax. The modality shift toward active transportation, economic populism and increasing consumer preference for hybrid and electric vehicles are all having an impact on this fiscal lever. The federal government’s decision to phase out gasoline and diesel-powered light-duty vehicles by 2035 will have a further profound impact on the Gas Tax revenues. At the provincial level, funds derived from the Gas Tax are directed toward municipally managed transit systems.

2. Road condition assessment for asset management planning using drones

Good Roads is working with researchers at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario to test the viability of using drones to perform road condition assessments. The upside of this innovation would help provide the requisite data needed to build out asset management plans but would allow municipalities to do it in a cost-effective, environmentally responsible and safe

manner. 

3. Vision Zero

Good Roads continues to advocate for the adoption of a province-wide Vision Zero program. As a first step, Good Roads has asked the Minister of Transportation to convene an Ministerial Advisory Committee to make recommendations about what would need to be accomplished to realize the full range of benefits associated with having a robust Vision Zero regime put in place in Ontario.

4. Development of Online training options

Good Roads is working with Waterloo-based online training industry leader D2L to convert 10 of their most popular courses into online training offerings. This initiative will allow municipal staff from across Ontario to access this highly regarded training regardless of where they may be in Ontario. It will also allow students to overcome cost and excess time away from the office. Initiatives like this are critical for municipalities and their staff members. This training is needed local governments prepare to provide the levels of service and asset performance that Ontarians expect.

At the 2022 Good Roads Conference, the membership of Ontario’s oldest municipal association elected a record number of women to its Board of Directors. For the first time in its history, one-third of the Directors are women. More than 1,500 professionals attended the conference which was held in Toronto from April 10 – 13, 2022.

The Good Roads 2022-2023 Board of Directors includes:

- Paul Schoppmann, President, and Mayor, Municipality of St. Charles

- John Parsons, First Vice-President and Division Manager, Road Operations and Forestry, City of London

- Bryan Lewis, Second Vice-President and Councillor, Town of Halton Hills

- Antoine Boucher, Director of Public Works and Engineering, Municipality of East Ferris, Third Vice-President

- Dave Burton, Immediate Past President and Mayor, Municipality of Highlands East

- Melissa Abercrombie, Manager, Engineering Services, Oxford County

- Paul Ainslie, Councillor, City of Toronto

- Chris Angelo, Director of Public Works & Environmental Services, City of Quinte West

- David Armstrong, Manager of Public Works, Town of Gananoque

- Nazzareno Capano, Manager of Transportation Policy and Innovation, City of Toronto

- Aakash Desai, Deputy Mayor, Municipality of Grey Highlands

- Kelly Elliott, Deputy Mayor, Municipality of Thames Centre

- Cheryl Fort, Mayor, Township of Hornepayne

- Donna Jebb, Councillor, Town of New Tecumseth

- Kristin Murray, Councillor, City of Timmins