The mayors of Ontario’s 27 big cities are unanimously calling on all provincial party leaders to commit to keeping in place the upload of certain program costs to the province. It is where those costs belonged in the first place. Passing on any new costs to cities would also be wrong.

In recent weeks, some leaders have speculated about getting tough with municipalities in order to balance the provincial budget. If this happens and the next government downloads more costs onto cities, a big property tax increase will result or many services will have to be cut. That’s the reality.

While it would be easy for the province to balance its budget by downloading costs to cities, this would be a huge mistake. It would end up hitting the pocketbooks of all 13 million people of this province. Municipal governments receive only nine cents of every household tax dollar, whereas the province receives 44 cents — yet municipalities own 60 per cent of all the infrastructure in Ontario.

It has taken 20 years to fix the download that cities experienced in the 1990s by the provincial government of the day. We cannot afford to go backwards.

Since 2008, costs associated with the Ontario Disability Support Program, court operations, Ontario Works, and drug benefits, to name a few, have once again become the responsibility of the province, and rightly so. If these services had remained downloaded onto property tax bills, the cost to residents and businesses today would have been $1.9 billion province-wide.

The mayors of Ontario’s big cities want to make it clear to party leaders that if any of the previously downloaded costs come back to cities, or any new costs are added, we will be forced to list these on the property tax bill along with any resulting service cuts.

We need the province to be a committed partner and play its part. The property tax was never designed to fund provincial programs.

Cities build the infrastructure that makes our economy run. We pave and maintain your roads, sidewalks; build the transit that keeps people moving; deliver emergency services and public safety, provide clean drinking water; provide community amenities like recreation centres, parks, trails, and libraries that we all enjoy.

Municipalities are well-run and are the most heavily regulated level of government. We cannot create deficit budgets. We must submit detailed, public financial reports at the end of every year. At the same time, we have limited sources of revenue to provide the range of services residents need daily. Our nine cents come primarily from property taxes and user fees. We are already being asked every year to do more with less; we cannot take on more responsibility.

The Large Urban Mayor’s Caucus represents 67 per cent of the Ontario population. Together, we are calling on all provincial parties and candidates to confirm their commitment to work with cities, to continue to maintain the upload agreement and to make further improvements. We support a strong, fiscally-prudent provincial government, but not at the expense or on the backs of our property taxpayers.

Prosperous communities lead to a prosperous Ontario. The next premier and provincial government would do well to remember this. In the end, we’re all in this together.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...