Priority 03
Infrastructure & Services Renewal
Peter Diedrich will ensure council delivers a funded, long-term plan to fix what's broken, modernize what's aging, and rebuild civic pride.
The challenge
Decades of reactive spending have left roads, transit, and core infrastructure lurching from crisis to crisis, with a city and its public spaces that no longer match the city's potential.
Our plan
- Launch a funded, long-term plan to fix roads, fix transit, and modernize core infrastructure.
- Deliver predictable, transparent capital planning — not crisis management with continuing $30MM deficits.
- Revitalize public spaces, arts, culture, and downtown districts as true destinations.
What success looks like
Roads and transit residents can rely on, capital projects delivered on time, and libraries, cultural spaces and downtown districts people are proud to show off.
Want to help make this happen?
Join the campaign and help turn these priorities into action for Thunder Bay.
Key initiatives
- FUNDED 4 & 8-YEAR RENEWAL PLAN
Build a prioritized 4 and 8 year funded full infrastructure renewal plan.
- Fix Roads & Utilities Now
Dramatically and immediately improve roads, transportation, and utilities infrastructure.
- Revamp Public Transit
Revamp and optimize the Public Transit system.
- LRT Feasibility Study (2035)
Conduct an LRT multi-phase feasibility study, funding, and implementation plan for 2035.
Peter's recent posts
Updates on the campaign, the city, and the issues that matter. Follow Peter on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok to join the conversation.
- Infrastructure & Services Renewal
The $4.9B renewal gap Thunder Bay can't ignore
July 23 2026
The Asset Management Plan Phase 3 (approved June 2025) puts Thunder Bay's asset replacement value at $4.9B and the annual funding gap at $30M+. The Canadian Infrastructure Report Card (CIRC) for our city reports that only 31% of Thunder Bay's road network is in good or very good condition, while 35% is poor or very poor.
The Asset Management Plan Phase 3 (approved June 2025) puts Thunder Bay's asset replacement value at $4.9B and the annual funding gap at $30M+.
The Canadian Infrastructure Report Card (CIRC) for our city reports that:
- Only 31% of Thunder Bay's road network is in good or very good condition, while 35% is poor or very poor
- Our sanitary sewer system averages 63 years old and is rated poor
- Operations yards, solid waste facilities, animal services buildings, and many parks facilities (Chippewa, Trowbridge, Centennial, golf clubhouses) are all rated poor
- Thunder Bay's graders, loaders, excavators, and much EMS/police/fire equipment (non-vehicle) are rated poor
Renewing what we have is the most effective housing, transit, asset, climate, and economic policy we can own.
The next administration and Mayor owe voters a quarterly dashboard and a funded, prioritized multi-year plan (to 2035).
We need economic development additions to permanently plug the gap and renew our city.
- Infrastructure & Services Renewal
We're missing our own renewal targets
July 30 2026
Thunder Bay's Asset Management Plan sets renewal targets. We're not hitting them. Roads: reinvesting at 1.33% — target is 1.99%. Sidewalks: 0.38% — target is 1.43%.
Thunder Bay's Asset Management Plan sets renewal targets. We're not hitting them.
- Roads: reinvesting at 1.33% — target is 1.99%
- Sidewalks: 0.38% — target is 1.43%
Keep underfunding at this rate and the $30M+ annual gap grows to as much as $373 MILLION over 10 years. $1.3 BILLION in assets are already sitting in high-risk territory.
This isn't a maintenance issue. It's a simple addition problem, and the city math is getting worse every year we wait.
The next Mayor needs to follow through on the City's own 80/20 renewal rule, chase every federal and provincial dollar available in Ottawa and Queen's Park, and report progress to tax payers quarterly, in public.
- Infrastructure & Services Renewal
We can't afford to wait like Wellington
August 5 2026
Change can't wait — because the bill won't either. Wellington, New Zealand's capital city, home to ~210,000 people, waited 50 years to fix its pipes. Now it's the case study every city should be looking to avoid.
Change can't wait — because the bill won't either.
Wellington, New Zealand's capital city, home to ~210,000 people, waited 50 years to fix its pipes. Now it's the case study every city should be looking to avoid.
In February, the bill came due literally and physically. Moa Point's treatment plant flooded, 80% of the equipment was destroyed, and raw sewage poured into the harbour at up to 70 million litres a day. It's still not fixed and won't be until at least 2027.
Now city residents are paying for that neglect directly. Water bills split from rates for the first time this year, are up 13% already, and are on track to nearly triple by 2036. One business owner said their new water bill alone matches what their entire old rates bill used to be.
That is what happens when a city lets "later" become the plan.
Thunder Bay has a $30.6M infrastructure deficit sitting in our own Asset Management Plan, against a $114.4M capital budget this year. We already know the number and the balance is growing every year.
We are not being ambushed by it the way Wellington was, which means there is no excuse for letting it grow. The only question left is whether we close that gap now, on our own terms, or later and disastrously, on Wellington's.
I'm committing to hold the 80/20 capital renewal rule and publish the numbers every quarter.
No more deferring. No more hopeful naïve decisions.
No more finding out what it cost us after the pipe already burst.