4.0

Strong Cities are the Future of  Canada

“100 Years ago 15% of all Canadians lived in cities. Today it is 85%”

Prior to the banking crisis of 2008, the Federal government had a surplus of $14 billion dollars yet the Municipality of Toronto had a deficit of $400 Million.  The response of the system was to impose an increase in the Land Transfer Tax on Torontonians.  If we consider the population of Toronto, Toronto’s share of that $14 Billion surplus is roughly $2 Billion.  The answer to municipal government deficits is NOT to increase taxes again.

As the world becomes more of a city-state structure, Canada needs to rethink the distribution of its elected parliamentarians which dates back to the formation of the confederation.  Canadians pay enough taxes.  Cities require the leadership to petition the allocation of some of that tax from the federal government in order to improve living conditions in their cities, and maintain the growth potential of these economic engines.

This is part of my “P.E.I. Argument”. I have nothing against P.E.I., it’s a very nice province. And, I am in no way challenging the structure of Confederation, I am simply using it as an example.

Federal Transfer Payments for 2010-2011 will transfer to the provinces $64.74 Billion dollars through Major transfers and Targeted Support programs. Ontario will receive $14.3 Billion and P.E.I $82 Million. Yet, per Capita, P.E.I. receives $4,193 per capita, and Ontario receives $1,422 per capita. The Federal average is $1,899 per capita. Ottawa is starving the economic engines, and looking at us like WE’re crazy. There has to be a more equitable redistribution of the taxes.

It is only through the leadership of the mayor of Canada’s largest city that such an alliance of cities can have a meaningful impact in Ottawa.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has been the national voice of municipal government since 1901.  The issues addressed by the FCM are reflective for the responsibility placed on communities by other layers of Canadian Government.

Mayor David Miller of Toronto and Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago are founding chairpersons of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a coalition of 150 mayors and local officials from communities in the Great Lakes basin. The Cities Initiative has called for the new Water Quality Agreement to be in place by June 2010 and for local government to be included as full partners in the negotiation and implementation of the Agreement.

Issue driven associations and relationships can draw attention, political clout and government funding to address issues and concerns that are of vital interest to those regions, that also have far-reaching impacts of the health and welfare of other national and international interests.

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