The City of Winnipeg is contemplating corporate sponsorships for its pothole-filling trucks, as a way to cover the cost of repairing the craters.

Mayor Sam Katz said the city spends about $1.5 million annually to fix potholes, but in certain years, such as this one, the costs can climb quickly. A series of freeze-thaw periods along with an unusual amount of water has caused an outbreak of wheel-pounding potholes.

'Why do people put advertising on buses? Because people see it. That's what it's all about. It's called marketing.'—Mayor Sam Katz

"They're bad. They're as bad as I can remember seeing," said Katz. "It's not like if you drive down one block…there's [just] a few. It's just consistent from one end to another.

"I've never seen it like that before. There's some serious work to be done."

Already this year, the city has spent $400,000 filling the holes, twice as much as usual for the spring.

The sponsorship proposal calls for company logos or names to be put on the vehicles used for the repairs. Katz believes companies would like it because their name would be associated with "a good thing."

"It's about fixing a large hole in the road, which people get annoyed by [and] cars suffer damage by. It's about cleaning up our streets," he said. "So it's doing something positive, that's number 1. Number 2, it gets exposure.

"Why do people put advertising on buses? Because people see it. That's what it's all about. It's called marketing."

Katz said city administrators are also looking into how other municipalities deal with pothole repair and whether there are better methods or materials to do the job.

A report on that, and the sponsorship possibility, will go to the mayor's cabinet later this year.