Good morning. Thank you for that kind introduction.<\/p>\n
My friends, I’m so happy to be here today.<\/p>\n
I want to thank the entire AMO Leadership for all the hard work that went into this year’s conference….<\/p>\n
And a special thank you to Mayor Jim Watson, an absolutely fantastic mayor… and the whole city council for hosting here in your beautiful city.<\/p>\n
And I want to recognize my outstanding Ministers, especially Steve Clark, for everything they’re doing on our government’s behalf…..<\/p>\n
And our many caucus members here today, too many to name…thank you for being here.<\/p>\n
We’re having over 900 meetings over the course of this conference.<\/p>\n
Our government’s relationship with our municipalities is incredibly important to me.<\/p>\n
We believe building a better province starts with investing in its people.<\/p>\n
We need to help them…not with top-down approaches directed by Queen’s Park…but from the ground up…<\/p>\n
That’s why our government is committed to building strong, local partnerships with our municipalities.<\/p>\n
And that starts with working with municipalities to make historic, strategic and local investments in our schools, hospitals, transit, highways, and other critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Over the next 10 years, our government plans to invest $144 billion dollars in local projects across the province.<\/p>\n
That includes over $90 billion alone in public transit and provincial highways to help get people and goods moving…<\/p>\n
We’ve nominated 350 projects to the federal government for key investments in transit, schools and hospitals.<\/p>\n
Including 201 transit projects outside the GTHA.<\/p>\n
As well as 144 road and bridge projects for rural and northern Ontario communities.<\/p>\n
Our 10-year capital plan also includes $17 billion dollars to build and renovate our hospitals.<\/p>\n
We’re investing $13 billion dollars to build new schools, and $1.4 billion to fix existing ones.<\/p>\n
And finally, we’re investing $315 million to improve and expand Internet and cell service into more rural and remote communities.<\/p>\n
I’m really excited to be the first one to tell you today, right here on this stage…<\/p>\n
We will be opening up the intake for the Community, Culture and Recreation Stream on September 3rd<\/sup> of the federal Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.<\/p>\n This represents $1 billion dollars for important local projects, like community centres, sports arenas, and cultural centres.<\/p>\n We’re giving you the time to prepare, and we’re really looking forward to receiving your applications in September.<\/p>\n That’s what we mean by investing from the ground up.<\/p>\n That’s what we mean by investing in people.<\/p>\n Which leads me to the reason why our government believes these investments in our local communities are so critical.<\/p>\n You know me. I believe in honest conversations.<\/p>\n It’s no secret that the province inherited a massive debt and deficit from the previous government.<\/p>\n But not only did we inherit a massive deficit, we also inherited broken systems…<\/p>\n Hallway health care, schools literally falling apart, overcrowded subways and buses, students failing math, and social services on life support.<\/p>\n We can’t continue throwing money at the problem as our predecessors did…into top-down, big government schemes.<\/p>\n That is neither compassionate or sustainable.<\/p>\n Instead, we’re going to work to build Ontario’s future together.<\/p>\n Municipalities know how to make every dollar count because you know where it’s needed most.<\/p>\n And the solution shouldn’t be imposing one-size-fits-all solutions from Queen’s Park…<\/p>\n The solution is giving municipalities the tools and supports they need to have more flexibility with their budgets…<\/p>\n Find savings, drive efficiencies, and modernize service delivery.<\/p>\n Our government established the Audit and Accountability Fund earlier this year…<\/p>\n And I’m so excited to learn that 90% of you have taken up our offer for funding for line-by-line reviews.<\/p>\n And I’m especially thankful to all of you because we offered this to school boards as well, but only two took us up…it’s disappointing.<\/p>\n The reviews are a $7 million dollar investment to help school boards and large municipalities protect core public services for future generations.<\/p>\n Our government also set up the Municipal Modernization Fund…<\/p>\n $200 million dollars to help 405 small and rural municipalities achieve efficiencies and plan for their future.<\/p>\n We recognize our government moved quickly when we came into office to address our inherited challenges…<\/p>\n But we’ve listened to you.<\/p>\n Today, I’m so excited to announce to this room that we’re providing transitional funding for your budgeting process in 2020…<\/p>\n To help our municipal partners pursue greater fiscal sustainability and protect the future of public services.<\/p>\n So you can continue to deliver important services people rely on every day, including public health and child care.<\/p>\n And we are increasing funding for land ambulance services by nearly 4% this year…and it will continue to increase into 2020.<\/p>\n There will also be no changes to the structure of the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund for 2020 to provide you with greater certainty in fiscal planning.<\/p>\n So that’s step one – giving our municipal partners more flexibility with their budgets, and ensuring you can deliver value for the taxpayers…because there is only one taxpayer.<\/p>\n But it’s also important to ensure the province is not getting in the way of your success.<\/p>\n Red tape and too many regulations stand in the way of local communities focusing on the things that matter most – the frontline services people rely on every day.<\/p>\n We’re tackling the mountain of annual provincial reporting requirements that you face – over 400 to be exact from 16 different ministries.<\/p>\n Through top-notch work led by Minister Clark, we’ve identified 94 reports to be eliminated and 27 reports to be consolidated or simplified.<\/p>\n And that’s just the start.<\/p>\n We gave municipalities back your voice when it comes to hosting renewable energy projects…<\/p>\n And why our government scrapped the awful Green Energy Act, one of the worst pieces of legislation ever, that stripped local communities of your voice in these planning decisions.<\/p>\n Reducing red tape is also a big part of our Housing Supply Action Plan.<\/p>\n This is one of my favourites…we eliminated a rule that required an environmental assessment before a municipality could plow its streets.<\/p>\n Can you imagine having to get a permit from the government every time you wanted to shovel your driveway in the winter?<\/p>\n Well that was the reality for municipalities for a long time.<\/p>\n Finally, I want to say thank you to each and every person in this room.<\/p>\n All of you represent the level of government closest to the people.<\/p>\n I’ve criss-crossed every corner of this province…and I’ve come to know all the mayors who are absolute champions for their communities and their constituents.<\/p>\n We’ve been working with Mayors Scarpitti, Barrow, and Bevilacqua in York Region to help them bring better subway service to the people they serve.<\/p>\n We’ve worked with Mayors Holder and Preston in London and St. Thomas to get people moving through their rapid bus transit projects.<\/p>\n I joined Mayor Brian Saunderson in Collingwood for Elvisfest and I worked with Mayor Graydon Smith in Bracebridge, Mayor Phil Harding of Muskoka Lakes and Mayor Scott Aitchison in Huntsville to addressing flooding.<\/p>\n Through it all, I’ve seen how our mayors are deeply passionate about working for the people.<\/p>\n And we have our own champions on our team who have served municipally.<\/p>\n Minister Clark and Minister Fedeli are former mayors.<\/p>\n Monte McNaughton and Doug Downey – both former municipal councillors…<\/p>\n And there are many others on our team who have been in your shoes and who have worked to leave their communities better than they found them.<\/p>\n We know the issues you hear from your constituents mean the world to them.<\/p>\n I was a Toronto City Councillor for four years myself – and I can’t tell you the number of times I saw ridiculous things happening to my constituents.<\/p>\n We need to put local communities back in the driver’s seat of their own affairs.<\/p>\n This is all part of an ongoing conversation between our governments led by Minister Clark and our municipal partners.<\/p>\n I encourage you to keep the conversation going.<\/p>\n We’re 100% committed to taking an active role to support you, so you can continue to do what you do best – put people first.<\/p>\n Thank you for joining this morning. Have a wonderful conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning. Thank you for that kind introduction. My friends, I’m so happy to be here today. I want to thank the entire AMO Leadership for all the hard work that went into this year’s conference…. 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