OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is warning that the Conservatives’ goal of smaller government will lead to cuts to critical public services, like health and social programs, as he took aim at Premier Doug Ford’s threatened budget reductions to municipalities.

With the federal election just months away, Trudeau’s Friday speech to municipal leaders had a sharply partisan edge as he framed the looming vote as a clear choice that could result in cuts that hit urban residents.

“We are an election away from going back to the days when austerity was the federal government’s only policy,” Trudeau told the annual conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities meeting in Quebec City.

“An election away from more cuts to municipalities, more cuts to services people need, more cuts to the programs that are making our communities better places to call home,” he said.

“We’ve seen Conservative politicians do this before. We can’t act surprised when they do it again,” the prime minister said.

His comments come in a week when public furor forced the Ontario government to back down on provincial funding cuts to municipalities that local leaders warned would hit essential services.

“We’re a government that listens,” Ford said Monday as he announced the reversal.

Earlier this week, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau called the Ontario government’s back down another example of Ford’s “cut first and think later” approach.

But Trudeau went further Friday, casting doubt on Ford’s pledge to consult further with Ontario municipalities on the reductions.

“He says he heard you, but frankly, I don’t think he has,” Trudeau said.

“We can’t forget how far Conservative politicians will go to fulfil their smaller government ideology,” Trudeau said.

“How quickly they will make cuts to public health, cuts to public education, cuts to child care and other essential services, just to add a line to their stump speech,” he said.

Trudeau used his speech to trumpet federal investments in infrastructure and the one-time transfer of $2.2 billion, announced in the 2019 budget, to municipalities to address short-term priorities.

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But he said recent developments at the provincial level have been a “cautionary tale.”

“We’ve seen provinces cut services without talking to you — services you have to deliver,” Trudeau said.

“In some cases, politicians have gone out of their way to block federal funding that was promised to your communities — just to score political points,” he said.

He vowed if provinces stand in the way of federal funding for towns and cities, Ottawa will find a way to work with them directly.

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“If they don’t want to work with us, we’re going to find a way to keep working with you,” the prime minister said.

At Queen’s Park, Infrastructure Minister Monte McNaughton said that “Prime Minister Trudeau is dead wrong.”

“We’ve approved 54 critical projects for funding and submitted those projects to the federal government. They include road, bridge and transit projects all across Ontario — as well as five historic GTHA transit projects totalling $28.5 billion,” said McNaughton.

“To date, the federal government has not approved these projects,” the minister said.

“The federal government has said Ontario’s priorities are their priorities. It’s time Prime Minister Trudeau put his money where his mouth is,” he said.

In his own remarks to the conference Friday, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer told delegates that Liberals would be “running a campaign of fear.

“So don’t be fooled by the misinformation that Mr. Trudeau will be spreading,” Scheer said, taking aim at Liberal spending.

“The reality is that runaway deficits and wasteful spending will jeopardize the ability of future governments to respond to the growing needs of our cities and towns,” Scheer said.

He said the infrastructure program under the Liberals has been “hopelessly mismanaged” for not getting funding out the door.

He pledged that a Conservative government would work collaboratively with provinces and municipalities, maintain “needed” infrastructure spending and provide “certainty and stability” on funding levels.

“I recognize that too often in the past, major decisions and policy initiatives have been made without considering the impact on municipalities,” Scheer said, according to a prepared text of his remarks.

“That is why my commitment to you is to ensure, that my government will ensure that a municipal lens will be taken into account,” Scheer said, adding that Conservatives believe in “decentralization.

“While Liberals have always adopted an ‘Ottawa knows best’ approach, we believe in empowering local decision making,” Scheer said.

With files from Robert Benzie

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