148 | Business World Magazine |
April 2014
The reality of growing need and shrink-
ing resources pushes Shepherd and those in
similar positions into the oft-perplexing task
of having to prioritize which infrastructure
needs are most pressing and which ones will
have to wait until a more favorable funding
climate develops.
It’s the sort of scenario he’s become ac-
customed to in a career of public service that
began when he graduated fromQueens Uni-
versity in nearby Kingston, Ontario in 1988,
but it’s still not easy.
“What we’re trying to do, and it’s done
fairly subjectively in a lot of ways, is look
at the value based on how many users there
are,” he said. “On roads, for example, higher-
traffic roads get priority over lower-traffic
roads. On lower-traffic roads, we will do sort
of a holding strategy or an expanded mainte-
nance program to just keep them going so we
can spend the money on the higher-traffic
roads.
“There are very important roads, there
are somewhat important roads and there are
roads that only serve a few people. Bridges
are a little different because you have to
keep them in a certain condition or they’re
not safe, but certainly we try to spend more
