MINTO – The Town of Cochrane is calling on the Province of Ontario to treat all municipalities fairly and provide equivalent budget funding.
Minto councillor Ron Elliot brought the letter from Cochrane to council’s attention on June 4.
The letter explains the City of Toronto recently received provincial funding to cover a $1.2 billion-dollar operating shortfall and approximately $12 million in federal and provincial funding for the policing budget.
“We’ve got to raise our own money through our taxes and Toronto has supposedly the lowest tax base … the government gives them money to cover their shortfall because they didn’t budget properly,” stated Elliott.
He said he believes Cochrane is asking for all communities to be treated the same way as the province has treated Toronto, and agrees to supporting their ask.
“We have a lot of things we’d like to do in the Town of Minto, for example … we have to lay them over a few years ago to make sure we’re keeping our budget, our money, everything under control and we’re not over-taxing the people,” added Elliott.
Council unanimously supported a motion to send a letter supporting the Cochrane letter to the province.
