By Pepper Parr
April 15th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
There never was all that much in the way of a meeting of minds. Today Burlington’s Mayor let Premier Ford know just how disappointed she is with him. In a statement released from her office Mayor Marianne Meed Ward said:
On behalf of the City of Burlington and Burlington City Council, I would like to express my disappointment in some aspects of the 2019 Ontario Budget that was released on April 11 — particularly, the decision to cancel the incremental increases in Provincial gas-tax funding over the next 10 years.
Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli presents the 2019 budget as Premier Doug Ford looks on at the legislature in Toronto on Thursday, April 11, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
In 2017, the Province announced the doubling of the gas tax from the current 2 cents per litre to 4 cents per litre. The funding was projected to increase to 2.5 cents/litre in 2019-2020, 3 cents/litre in 2020-21 and 4 cents/litre in 2021-22.
The City of Burlington currently receives $2.2 million, based on the 2 cents/litre model — over the next decade, and based on the former planned increases, this funding would have amounted to an additional $19.25 million in that 10-year span.
This is money that has been taken out of the pockets of our City and residents — funding that could have been used for essential transit projects, such as buying additional transit vehicles, adding more routes, extending the hours of service, implementing fare strategies and improving accessibility.
It was a fllod that wasn’t expected. It cost the city a bundle and we now know there is more of this weather coming our way. Where the money is going to come from to pay for future damage is going to come from is now an unknown.
We also learned that the Province is planning cuts to the Conservation Authority Flood Forecasting and Natural Hazards Management funding by 50 per cent. This represents balancing the provincial books by downloading costs to municipalities and cutting funding obligations to cities and agencies.
Cuts to flood mitigation and public safety initiatives are the worst places to make cuts and not where they should be done. As a board member of Conservation Halton, I know we continually look for savings wherever possible. The Province needs to contribute their agreed upon share to this important work.
Downloading the aforementioned costs to municipalities increases the likelihood of increased taxes on our residents to maintain the initiatives and services they count on and at a level they should expect.
Smiles are not going to get anyone anywhere with this Premier. Mayor Marianne Meed Ward meets with Premier at a photo op.
As a City, we are particularly disheartened by the fact that these cuts were not publicly disclosed during the official announcement of the Provincial Budget last week.
The displeasure with the Premier could be a little brisker. How about your basically stealing our money – what are you using it for – the new license plates we are going to get to use? Diplomacy, reason and straight up accountability isn’t going to work with this Premier.
Just how rich are Burlington people that they’re upset we’re not getting taxed harder… have you seen gas prices?! Wake up fools.
For clarification, the gas tax wasn’t increasing to cover this. All municipalities had previously received 2 cents per litre from the provincial gas tax. Back in 2016-2017 the AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario) sounded the alarm over the impending infrastructure costs. There was a funding gap of $3.6B per year for the projected 10 years (2026). With that they petitioned the Liberal government to raise the HST to 14% and divert the extra 1% to the municipalities. The Liberal government (and the people who were aware) were vehemently against this. The Liberal government countered with increasing the gas tax portion starting in 2017, rising $0.50 per year to 2021 where it would be $0.04/L. With the Liberal’s promise AMO estimated municipalities would only need to see property taxes go up 4.6% to cover the gap; or all municipalities would have to find drastic savings, alternative income sources, or a mix of all of the above. Without the promised funding increase, the percentage for property tax increases would need to be upwards of 8.3% per year. *This* is why the money was increasing. Cutting it out at the provincial level leaves a lot of issues at the municipal level. I’m not suggesting it was right or wrong, but I am saying that as citizens, we’ll be paying anyways.
Carol Victor : correct ! Tories will slowly destroy all that Liberals, provincial and federal, have built up in our country…..we have become envy around the world !…..elect Scheer ?….God save this nation….this process of dismantling progress will now intensify, since Alberta elected Jason Kenney. Just watch !
Ben Tuinman
Where is our MPP in all this? Has she gone into hiding? Is she so insignificant in the PC scheme of things that no one will even write her some talking points?
Correct Alide…..why are we so shocked?……we got what we voted for…..and more surprises to follow, just keep tuned !
You are absolutely correct Alide. We reap what we sow.
Why is everybody so shocked about all of the cuts? Were people really so blind to what It has meant to Ontario by electing this government?
Your right–everybody should not be shocked by the cuts! Provincial debt run up by the Liberals in the past 15 years were not sustainable!
Hang on there – this government announced that they weren’t going to reduce the deficit – if you want to hammer the Liberals do so – but use the same metric when you talk about the Tories you clearly like and support.
This is “conserve” atism… cut cut cut and no plans to improve anything. Think about this before ousting Trudeau and electing Andrew Sheer.
Carol Victor