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From The Star
Mayor's plea for aid gets cool reception
Ottawa, Queen's Park turn down demand for cash
Miller wants share of sales taxes to bring $450M
Nov. 15, 2006. 01:00 AM
JIM BYERS
CITY HALL BUREAU
Fresh mandate. Same stalemate.
Hours after his election victory on Monday night, Mayor David Miller yesterday repeated his demand that Ottawa and Queen's Park give the city a portion of federal and provincial taxes. Within hours, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty flatly rebuffed Miller.
Miller wants 1 cent from either the provincial sales tax or federal GST generated in Toronto, which is worth about $450 million a year. He wants to use the money to build rapid transit lines, help the homeless and deal with potential recessions.
"Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper has promised to cut the GST by another cent," the mayor said.
"If there's room to cut, there's room to share. And what I'm saying is that cent that he's cutting from the goods and services tax should come to municipalities across this country."
Miller said he'll make sure the issue is "front and centre in the upcoming provincial and federal elections. Because if people stick together, like they did last night, they're a voice that cannot be ignored."
But it didn't take the folks in Ottawa and at Queen's Park long to pour ice water on Miller's red-hot rhetoric.
Flaherty told the Toronto Star in a phone interview from Regina that it's time for Miller to get his own financial house "in order" before asking other governments for extra cash.
Ottawa has committed hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funds to the GTA, but the more Toronto gets, the more the mayor wants, he said.
Flaherty said Miller ought to be a "chastened mayor" because he did not win a bigger mandate from voters on Monday and, as such, "would try to get his own house in order before he starts asking other" levels of government "to subsidize him."
Premier Dalton McGuinty said he'll stand with Toronto as it seeks a portion of federal tax revenue, but the city shouldn't expect to get a free reach into the provincial piggy bank.
"I'd love to be in a position to be able to dole out additional revenues to our municipal partners, but I'm not," McGuinty told reporters. "What we can do is stand shoulder to shoulder — not just our municipal partners but the business community and the social sector as well — as we approach the federal government and continue to make our case."
The province has already taken steps to improve the city's bottom line by giving it $160 million in gas-tax revenue, uploading some public health and ambulance costs, and giving Toronto the power to raise additional revenues by taxing such things as cigarettes and alcohol, the premier said.
Ontario says the new taxing powers could be worth between $50 million and $300 million. The city insists they might bring in $40 million to $50 million a year, which isn't nearly enough to cover the expected $500 million budget shortfall for next year.
Told of McGuinty's comments, Miller offered a tight smile and played nice.
"Well, I'd say I'm glad the conversation's started. I look forward to working with Premier McGuinty. He's been a great supporter of Toronto."
Harper has said he'll cut the federal goods and services tax by another percentage point. Miller said that money should go to municipalities.
"We need a share of the sales tax or other revenues that grow with economic growth and we need a national transit strategy," Miller said.
With a provincial election set for Oct. 4, 2007, McGuinty and Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory are jockeying for support in Toronto, which will have 23 of the 107 seats up for grabs in the expanded Legislature.
Federally, the minority Conservative government has no seats in Toronto and Harper likely needs a breakthrough here to win a majority in an election expected next year.
Continuing his efforts to strike a new deal for Toronto is just one of the items on Miller's list of things to do between now and the next civic election in 2010. He also has to convince the federal government to commit about $700 million to extend the Downsview subway line to York University.
The mayor said yesterday that passing a lobbyist registry for city hall, a campaign pledge from 2003 that fell apart when council turned down the idea in September, also is a high priority.
Under the new City of Toronto Act, expected to take effect early next year, the city has been given unprecedented powers to levy new taxes. The new leeway is appreciated, a spokesman for Miller said, but the most the city could raise from various fees is about $50 million a year.
As much as Miller has on his plate, he's made it clear that grabbing a slice of the federal-provincial tax pie is his priority.
"If there's an economic downturn in the not-too-distant future, the city budget's in very difficult shape," he warned. "The costs we bear are unlike any major city in this country. Montreal doesn't have to pay for social services, for example. When there's a downturn, those costs can be enormous."
Dave Barrow, the newly elected mayor of Richmond Hill, said Miller has his full support on the financing question.
"Anywhere transit is successful — Vancouver, Montreal, a lot of places in the United States — it has to have federal partners."
Larry O'Connor, mayor-elect of Brock Township in northern Durham Region, said a share of the sales tax could be used to improve the gravel roads that run through much of the region's rural areas.
"Smaller municipalities just do not have the financial resources as it is to maintain infrastructure," he said.
Outgoing Oakville Mayor Ann Mulvale accused Miller of "conveniently pulling out one option" on election night "when we need to look at all the options."
She said it makes just as much sense to persuade the province to remove the cost of social services from the property-tax bill.
With files from Kerry Gillespie, Les Whittington, Robert Benzie, Jessica Leeder, Richard Brennan and Stan Josey
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs...3544613439
Mayor's plea for aid gets cool reception
Ottawa, Queen's Park turn down demand for cash
Miller wants share of sales taxes to bring $450M
Nov. 15, 2006. 01:00 AM
JIM BYERS
CITY HALL BUREAU
Fresh mandate. Same stalemate.
Hours after his election victory on Monday night, Mayor David Miller yesterday repeated his demand that Ottawa and Queen's Park give the city a portion of federal and provincial taxes. Within hours, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty flatly rebuffed Miller.
Miller wants 1 cent from either the provincial sales tax or federal GST generated in Toronto, which is worth about $450 million a year. He wants to use the money to build rapid transit lines, help the homeless and deal with potential recessions.
"Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper has promised to cut the GST by another cent," the mayor said.
"If there's room to cut, there's room to share. And what I'm saying is that cent that he's cutting from the goods and services tax should come to municipalities across this country."
Miller said he'll make sure the issue is "front and centre in the upcoming provincial and federal elections. Because if people stick together, like they did last night, they're a voice that cannot be ignored."
But it didn't take the folks in Ottawa and at Queen's Park long to pour ice water on Miller's red-hot rhetoric.
Flaherty told the Toronto Star in a phone interview from Regina that it's time for Miller to get his own financial house "in order" before asking other governments for extra cash.
Ottawa has committed hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funds to the GTA, but the more Toronto gets, the more the mayor wants, he said.
Flaherty said Miller ought to be a "chastened mayor" because he did not win a bigger mandate from voters on Monday and, as such, "would try to get his own house in order before he starts asking other" levels of government "to subsidize him."
Premier Dalton McGuinty said he'll stand with Toronto as it seeks a portion of federal tax revenue, but the city shouldn't expect to get a free reach into the provincial piggy bank.
"I'd love to be in a position to be able to dole out additional revenues to our municipal partners, but I'm not," McGuinty told reporters. "What we can do is stand shoulder to shoulder — not just our municipal partners but the business community and the social sector as well — as we approach the federal government and continue to make our case."
The province has already taken steps to improve the city's bottom line by giving it $160 million in gas-tax revenue, uploading some public health and ambulance costs, and giving Toronto the power to raise additional revenues by taxing such things as cigarettes and alcohol, the premier said.
Ontario says the new taxing powers could be worth between $50 million and $300 million. The city insists they might bring in $40 million to $50 million a year, which isn't nearly enough to cover the expected $500 million budget shortfall for next year.
Told of McGuinty's comments, Miller offered a tight smile and played nice.
"Well, I'd say I'm glad the conversation's started. I look forward to working with Premier McGuinty. He's been a great supporter of Toronto."
Harper has said he'll cut the federal goods and services tax by another percentage point. Miller said that money should go to municipalities.
"We need a share of the sales tax or other revenues that grow with economic growth and we need a national transit strategy," Miller said.
With a provincial election set for Oct. 4, 2007, McGuinty and Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory are jockeying for support in Toronto, which will have 23 of the 107 seats up for grabs in the expanded Legislature.
Federally, the minority Conservative government has no seats in Toronto and Harper likely needs a breakthrough here to win a majority in an election expected next year.
Continuing his efforts to strike a new deal for Toronto is just one of the items on Miller's list of things to do between now and the next civic election in 2010. He also has to convince the federal government to commit about $700 million to extend the Downsview subway line to York University.
The mayor said yesterday that passing a lobbyist registry for city hall, a campaign pledge from 2003 that fell apart when council turned down the idea in September, also is a high priority.
Under the new City of Toronto Act, expected to take effect early next year, the city has been given unprecedented powers to levy new taxes. The new leeway is appreciated, a spokesman for Miller said, but the most the city could raise from various fees is about $50 million a year.
As much as Miller has on his plate, he's made it clear that grabbing a slice of the federal-provincial tax pie is his priority.
"If there's an economic downturn in the not-too-distant future, the city budget's in very difficult shape," he warned. "The costs we bear are unlike any major city in this country. Montreal doesn't have to pay for social services, for example. When there's a downturn, those costs can be enormous."
Dave Barrow, the newly elected mayor of Richmond Hill, said Miller has his full support on the financing question.
"Anywhere transit is successful — Vancouver, Montreal, a lot of places in the United States — it has to have federal partners."
Larry O'Connor, mayor-elect of Brock Township in northern Durham Region, said a share of the sales tax could be used to improve the gravel roads that run through much of the region's rural areas.
"Smaller municipalities just do not have the financial resources as it is to maintain infrastructure," he said.
Outgoing Oakville Mayor Ann Mulvale accused Miller of "conveniently pulling out one option" on election night "when we need to look at all the options."
She said it makes just as much sense to persuade the province to remove the cost of social services from the property-tax bill.
With files from Kerry Gillespie, Les Whittington, Robert Benzie, Jessica Leeder, Richard Brennan and Stan Josey
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs...3544613439