Though there are helpful things “around the edges” of the provincial government’s latest economic statement, Mayor Cam Guthrie feels it falls far short of living up to a year-old promise to make municipalities ‘whole.’
Guthrie had been looking forward to Thursday’s announcement with anticipation, expecting to finally learn how the province plans to help municipalities cover revenue lost as a result of provincial legislation changes intended to spur housing development.
“I want to start by saying how disappointed I am that the one opportunity that they had for announcing that they were going to make municipalities ‘whole’ … was completely dismissed by the government today,” Guthrie said when asked for his opinion of the announcement.
“The crux of what they should have focused on, the target they should have focused on was to help with alleviating the impacts on municipalities, because without alleviating those impacts, they will directly impact the taxpayers of all municipalities. And they did not do that.”
Guthrie is referring to the city’s projected loss of $227 million in development charges, parkland fees and others over the next 10 years as a result of provincial legislation passed in the past year – money that would have been collected for new builds to help cover the cost of infrastructure and expanding city services to new residents.
“We needed to have clarity and certainty around the province fulfilling their promise and their commitment to municipalities to make us whole,” he continued. “Our city budget gets released (Friday) and I was looking forward to (learning the province had) created a mechanism to make us whole.”
Without the promise being fulfilled, property taxpayers will be left holding the bill.
"Providing that infrastructure is critical," added MPP Mike Schreiner, who shares in the mayor's disappointment.
More than water and sewer lines, that infrastructure includes transit, police, parks, libraries, fire services and more.
"These are vital to being able to build new homes and to be able to provide the services those homes need," Schreiner noted.
As part of its economic statement, the provincial government announced plans to launch the Ontario Infrastructure Bank, which is intended to be an arms-length, board-governed agency that enables public-sector pension plans and other institutional investors to support large-scale infrastructure projects.
With proposed initial funding of $3 billion from provincial coffers, projects are to focus on long-term care homes, affordable housing and the infrastructure needs of municipalities, as well as the community, energy and transportation sectors.
“This is absolutely something that I think may very well help. It's something though, that I wish had been started earlier,” said Guthrie.
“The housing crisis and large infrastructure projects, they're upon us now,” he added, noting it takes time to set up the program, then for applications to begin flowing through it, followed by physical construction. Time is not on our side right now.”
The mayor was also pleased to learn of the province’s plan for municipalities to share in $200 million over three years to help ‘unlock’ new housing opportunities through water system upgrades. However, that’s just a drop in the bucket.
"I don't think the infrastructure bank is going to deliver what's needed," said Shreiner. "Winter is coming and we have all kinds of people living unhoused.
"I worry this will be a partisan vehicle instead of a non-partisan vehicle."
Water infrastructure upgrades to Speedvale Avenue and York Road alone cost $50 million, he noted.
“So $200 million across the whole province is, it just shows that it's clearly not enough,” Guthrie said.
“My genuine fear is that the province is trying to substitute the commitment to ‘make us whole’ from their legislative changes by trying to introduce the building housing factor fund of $1.2 billion, and this new $200 million water infrastructure fund. That not only equals $1.4 billion, but the entire cost to municipalities for the provincial legislative changes is over $5 billion.”
Other things in the economic statement Guthrie believes deserve praise include:
- The province will remove its eight per cent portion of the HST for some new, purpose-built rental projects
- Extension of the current gas and fuel tax rate cuts through to June 30
- Provision of access to breast cancer screening for women ages 40 to 49 beginning next fall.
