Royson James wrongly suggested that the current provincial government has downloaded costs onto Toronto. In fact, downloading costs onto municipalities was a key strategy of the Harris-Eves Conservative governments.
Since 2003, the Liberal government has uploaded transit costs by giving 2 cents of the provincial gas tax to cities for public transit. We've uploaded land ambulance and public-health costs. Indeed, overall support for the City of Toronto is five times greater this year than it was under the Conservatives.
We have made progress, but we have more work to do to help Toronto and other municipalities. And that's why on Jan. 1, 2008, we will proceed with the next phase of our plan by starting to upload social-service costs that should not be paid for by property taxpayers.
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Greg Sorbara, Ontario Minister
of Finance, Toronto
