{"id":34797,"date":"2020-07-28T08:21:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T12:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=34797"},"modified":"2020-07-28T08:21:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T12:21:04","slug":"municipalities-need-a-long-term-commitment-from-the-province-to-avoid-service-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/28\/municipalities-need-a-long-term-commitment-from-the-province-to-avoid-service-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Municipalities need a long-term commitment from the province to avoid service cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

NDP\u00a0<\/span>Municipal Affairs critic Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre) and NDP Transit critic Jessica Bell (University\u2014Rosedale) are calling on the Ford government to commit to supporting municipalities over the long-term, after the government said Monday it would distribute \u201cup to\u201d $4 billion in one-time funding.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

For two years before the pandemic, Doug Ford made deep cuts to municipalities, including cuts to public health, ambulance services, and child care. Ford also took away municipalities\u2019 promised share of the existing gas tax transfer.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

\u201cOur municipal partners continue to do much of the heavy lifting, including funding public health, child care, municipal long-term care facilities and more. While the funding announced Monday might give some breathing room to municipalities hurting from pandemic costs, it still falls far short of what will be needed to protect jobs and public services over the long-term,\u201d said Burch. <\/u><\/u>\u201cDoug Ford\u2019s cuts were deep. Without a long-term commitment to stable funding, Ontario\u2019s municipalities could be forced to impose steep property tax hikes, lay off more staff and make deep cuts to services people count on. That\u2019s no way to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bell says that the funding crisis in public transit was created by the Ford government when they took away municipalities\u2019 promised share of the existing gas tax transfer, which has only gotten worse due to the significantly reduced ridership during the pandemic. <\/u><\/u>\u201cThe provincial government used to fund 50 per cent of the operating costs of transit. If this government is truly committed to helping Ontario recover \u2014 which includes helping commuters get on less crowded, more frequent buses and trains and going back to work \u2014 it needs to reverse its cuts and permanently fund some transit operating costs,\u201d said Bell.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Bell and Burch said the NDP would be closely monitoring the one-time funding rollout. Unanswered questions remain about how municipalities will apply for the money and how it will be divided; as well as what the total amount will be, since Monday\u2019s funding announcement included only a maximum, not a final tally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NDP\u00a0Municipal Affairs critic Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre) and NDP Transit critic Jessica Bell (University\u2014Rosedale) are calling on the Ford government to commit to supporting municipalities over the long-term, after the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[2617],"class_list":["post-34797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorials","tag-4-billion"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 09:23:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34798,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34797\/revisions\/34798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}