Senior government municipal funding - A true dichotomy.

• Author: Wray, Chris
• Position: NEWS

On April 15, 2008, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) released the "largest-ever survey of Canadians' attitudes on municipal issues". The entire document (obtained at www.fcm.ca) makes for interesting reading. The survey also serves to illustrate the true dichotomy that exists when one compares the funding of municipal governments by both the federal and provincial level of government in Ontario.

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The 134-page document provides much more information and should be reviewed, not only by the municipal sector, but by the senior levels of government, particularly the federal government. A casual observer would certainly conclude that the province is at least attempting to address some of the obvious shortfalls.

In the past couple of years, the McGuinty Liberals have increased the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, provided infrastructure funding through the Roads and Bridges Program, the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative and the Rural Infrastructure Investment Initiative. They also agreed to review the manner in which municipalities are funded through the Provincial-Municipal Fiscal Review. Good for them and good for communities!

In March, the province introduced Bill 35, Investing in Ontario Act. If this bill passes, it will ensure that any provincial surplus that exceeds $800 million would be provided to the municipal level of government along with the flexibility and discretion of spending the funds to address capital needs. It is envisioned that the distribution formula would be a per capitabasis. While the distribution of funds is dependent upon a surplus, this is a big step in addressing the problems of our communities.

In dark contrast, the federal government is nowhere to be found. COMRIF I, II and III are long gone and Ottawa has shown no signs of cooperating with Ontario to ensure COMRIF IV gets on track. One billion dollars was announced to assist the manufacturing sector with no tangible results. Just where are these funds? If you are lucky enough to live in Northern Ontario, accessing funds through FedNor has become more difficult than ever. While the area covered by FedNor has expanded the funds have not kept pace. The federal Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty continues to criticize the province...