Guelph-Eramosa council is taking a step towards closing the fiscal gap to address the municipality’s future infrastructure needs.
At the Nov. 21 meeting Mayor Chris White brought a resolution to council from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO).
“We get a lot of resolutions that people ask us to pass and typically … you don’t pass every one that shows up,” White said.
“In this particular case, this specific resolution is calling for the government, at the other levels, provincial and federal, to recognize the fiscal gap we have, to maintain the levels that they’re funding us and to move them forward.”
According to the resolution, an AMO poll indicated 76 per cent of Ontarians are concerned property taxes won’t resolve infrastructure needs while still maintaining services, and 90% indicated maintaining safe infrastructure is important.
The resolution also states that a 10-year projection for 2016 to 2025 indicates there is an unfunded average need of $3.6 billion a year for Ontario municipalities to fix local infrastructure and address municipal operating needs.
This means annual funds raised for each municipality from property taxes would need to be increased an average of 4.6% per year.
However, if current provincial funding levels fall, the annual increase would need to be 8.35% for 10 years.
“It’s just not … doable,” White said.
Council passed the resolution supporting AMO’s work to close the fiscal gap so municipalities can benefit from predictable and sustainable revenue to finance infrastructure and municipal service needs.
“I think that if we don’t indicate that we’re in support of this you’re hard pressed later to say ‘where’s my grant,’” White said.
“AMO is looking for support so they can continue to lobby the government to ensure we get our loans and funding.”
Councillor Mark Bouwmeester was in support.
“As far as I’m concerned this is the name of the game,” he said. “Maintaining the funding we’ve got and still getting – not going backwards.”
White said that is why it’s important to support the resolution.
“Part of it’s … to state the facts,” White said.
“Keep it in front of their eyes because if you don’t reiterate what the numbers are and what it might be, sometimes it gets lost in the noise of running a government. So it helps to quantify what the need is, what the impacts are.”
AMO is requesting all Ontario municipalities support the resolution.
