Liberal and Conservative governments have spent decades downloading costs of essential services to local governments;
Under the Ford government, municipalities of all sizes are being forced to make impossible choices – whether to prioritize ambulance services, infrastructure, affordable housing, highway maintenance, or the mental health and addictions epidemic;
Therefore, we the undersigned support the prospect of a New Deal for Ontario through the following measures:
- Upload back provincial financial responsibility for affordable housing, shelters, and homelessness prevention programs, while maintaining locally focused delivery by municipal service managers.
- A province-wide Social and Economic Prosperity Review of how infrastructure in funded in small, rural, and Northern municipalities that are facing disproportionate challenges with fewer financial resources in a changing climate.
- The restoration of 50% provincial funding for municipal transit net operational costs.
- A commitment to get Ontario back to building affordable homes through Homes Ontario - the Ontario NDP’s plan to provide significant new provincial investments in public, non-profit and co-op housing, in partnership with municipal service managers.
- The application of a rural and Northern lens to the development of this new partnership that recognizes the unique challenges and opportunities facing those communities.