THE NEED FOR A SOLUTION NOW

The urgent need to balance the delivery of Municipal and Provincial services with the ability to pay is acknowledged by people and politicians across the province.

“I just hope and pray the review will not be a justification to delay any further progress. We need the assistance now, we can’t wait until 2008.”
-Hazel McCallion, Toronto Star, August 26, 2006

Municipalities Association President Roger Anderson, the Durham Regional chairman, said the 18 month review is longer than he would have preferred. “We’ll work very hard to shorten that period,” he said.
- Timmins Daily Press, August 15, 2006

“The longer we wait, the more it will cost us in lost opportunity and investment in the core municipal responsibilities, such as transit, transportation, and essential water and wastewater infrastructure.”
- Roger Anderson, Association of Municipalities of Ontario President, 2006 Pre-budget submission speech

The report is due in 18 months -- four months after the next provincial election. The Premier is carefully handling a hot potato. Municipal politicians are hopping mad about the province shifting expensive services onto local property taxes. McGuinty’s review is timed to cool the issue until after Ontario votes.
- Brantford Expositor, August 16, 2006

The province doesn’t need 18 months to study the problem. It’s well documented already. What the province needs is a solution and one before the next provincial election, not after. That’s just too convenient for the current ruling party.
- North Bay Nugget, August 16, 2006

New Democratic critic Michael Prue accused the Premier of “putting off a solution to the municipal-funding crisis until after the next election because he doesn’t have a solution – and he doesn’t want to find one.”
- The Globe and Mail, August 15, 2006

It appears that Dalton McGuinty’s re-election strategy is to commission studies of potentially contentious issues with them due to be delivered well into the term of the next government.
- St Catharines Standard, August 16, 2006

What’s not so good about McGuinty’s announcement is the 18 months he says the review will take, with the results coming after the 2007 election. During the last campaign, the Liberals stressed the importance of fairness to the municipalities; given that, 18 months seems way too long.
-Hamilton Spectator, August 16, 2006

For residents and business owners paying property taxes across the province, it has led to annual increases in tax rates and user fees and a steady decline in municipal services and infrastructure. And with that decline comes a growing future cost load, as eventually our municipal roads, watermains, buildings, recreational facilities, social housing and other infrastructure will have to be upgraded or replaced.
- Owen Sound Sun Times, August 23, 2006

AMO president Roger Anderson said the 18-month review is longer than he would have preferred. We agree. The time is long past due that the province addresses this fiscal imbalance, regardless of its ongoing battle with the federal government.
-Sudbury Star, August 26, 2006

It is something every councillor and mayor across the province struggles with at budget time. The costs of the programs the province has decreed they must provide keep going up, so either property taxes have to go up too or other city services have to take a cut.
- The Toronto Star, August 26, 2006

Most municipalities have already cut expenses, reduced services, deferred capital investment and increased user fees. And their ability to service more debt is extremely limited. This situation is not sustainable. Last year, Ontario municipalities estimated that the provincial-municipal fiscal gap created largely by downloading accounted to a $3.2 billion annual cost to local ratepayers.
-The Toronto Star, April 6, 2006