ERIN – During the town’s first meeting of the year, council discussed various boundary road agreements with neighbouring municipalities.
“These agreements establish who does what in the context of maintaining and repairing highways which fall under the joint jurisdiction of the town and neighbouring municipality,” town deputy clerk Justin Grainger told council on Jan. 23.
Such work includes:
– routine road patrols;
– road repair;
– road widening;
– line painting;
– dust suppression;
– shoulder maintenance;
– plowing; and
– winter road clearing.
In 2011 council directed staff to initiate the process of entering into a boundary road agreement with five adjacent municipalities – Centre Wellington, East Garafraxa, Caledon, Halton Hills and Guelph/Eramosa.
Since that time, the town’s agreements with Guelph/Eramosa and Halton Hills expired in 2014 and 2025, and no other agreements have been entered.
“Leading up to the expiration of the latter agreements, staff worked with their counterparts in Halton Hills regarding the terms of renewal,” said Grainger.
Town staff also reviewed the agreement process and offered council a “more efficient” approach.
“Operationally it really isn’t practical for two bordering municipalities to each maintain their side of a boundary road,” town director of infrastructure Brain Kavanagh stated. “It’s far more practical … to divide the segment length of the road into two and for each municipality to take responsibility for half of the full length; that also includes liability.”
For staff to establish and administer boundary road agreements efficiently, they asked council to pass a bylaw delegating the authority to staff.
It is to note the agreements will not result in any unbudgeted expenditures.
Halton Hills has delegated the authority to approve and execute the agreement to its staff and town staff, states the council report.
“With respect to the Halton Hills agreement, the town expects it to be executed in the next couple of weeks but is not yet in effect,” Grainger told the Advertiser in a Jan. 27 email.
