80 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



The Highway Commissioners of Ontario, in their annual report 

 for 1915, draw attention to the need of more co-operation between 

 the cities and the country districts in the matter of road improvement. 

 Ontario has about 50,000 miles of roads, and the Highway Commis- 

 sioners consider that a sum of $30,000,000 should be spent on these 

 roads during the next 15 years. The following apportionment is 

 suggested : 



Province (including revenue from motor fees).... $12,000,000 



Counties . 12,000,000 



Cities.... 6,000,000 



$30,000,000 



To this capital expenditure must be added the cost of main- 

 tenance, which may amount to from $300 to $500 per mile. 



The amount appropriated in the State of New York is $65,000,000 

 for 11,000 miles of highways, and about $50,000,000 has already been 

 spent or earmarked. In Great Britain we have seen that one depart- 

 ment alone the Road Board has raised $32,000,000 for road im- 

 provements in four years. Merely for purposes of road improve- 

 ment Ontario would require to incur an expenditure of about three 

 million dollars annually to bring its current rate of improvement 

 in the settled part of the province up to the British standard. The 

 proposed expenditure of the Ontario Highway Commission, at the 

 rate of two millions annually, would, therefore, appear to represent 

 the minimum, under present conditions. 



Under the Ontario Highways Act, the province, the cities and 

 the counties may co-operate to improve main roads in suburban 

 areas. Forty per cent of the cost of construction of such roads is 

 provided by the province, the other sixty per cent being contributed 

 in equal portions by the city and the county; for maintenance, the 

 province gives twenty per cent and the city and county each forty 

 per cent. This arrangement, under which the city contributes to- 

 wards the cost of construction and maintenance of suburban roads 

 in county areas, is a just one, since the greater part of the traffic 

 passing over such roads is for the benefit of the city; moreover, the 

 average rural municipality cannot afford the preliminary cost of 

 building up a main road system. In Ontario, however, the improve- 

 ment of highways has to be confined to the principal lines of communi- 

 cation.* As in all the other provinces, there are so many roads in 

 Ontario that only a selected few can be improved. Roads are di- 



* Annual Report on Highway Improvement, Ontario, 1915. 



