Residents of Quispamsis will be feeling inflation not only in the grocery store, but also on the roads in their community.

The town is cancelling its entire street upgrade program this year because the bids for the work were at least $1 million over budget.

“I’ve been doing this for a little bit more than 36 years and those are the highest incremental increases I’ve ever seen from year to year,” said Gary Losier, director of engineering and public works for the town of Quispamsis.

He said it’s not uncommon for roadwork bids to come in higher than expected. A few thousand bucks is no surprise, but a million dollars over, or 40 per cent higher than expected, is another story. Losier said the town usually prepares for bids to be 10 to 15 per cent over budget.

“When you set your budget, you try to do your best to guess,” he said. “It just surprised the heck out of us.”

The country has seen the highest increase in non-residential construction costs since Statistics Canada started keeping track in 1981. According to the agency, non-residential construction costs increased 12.5 per cent in 2022 compared with 2021. It said the main reason for the increase is rising costs of materials and lack of staff.

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