Mayor calls on feds to apply pressure

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/02/2018 (2803 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Mayor Brian Bowman says he wants Ottawa to push the Pallister government to cough up more funding for infrastructure projects in the city, and to also give the city a handsome portion of tax collected from legalized marijuana.

“The challenge many of the big city mayors are having is ensuring that those funds are flowing through the provinces, and getting to municipalities to support municipal priorities,” Bowman said Thursday, on the sidelines of the Big City Mayors’ Caucus in Ottawa.

Two weeks ahead of the federal budget, the mayors of 22 of Canada’s largest municipalities met with Liberal cabinet ministers and asked them to accelerate the cash they expect to spend after the 2019 federal election.

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, who is chairman of the caucus, praised November’s $40-billion national housing strategy, but said public housing in cities has become old and in disrepair because of inadequate federal funding.

“We’d like to get those back in the hands of Canadians who need them and create the jobs now — not in a year or two,” he said.

Iveson suggested that major infrastructure projects should be funded with the federal and provincial governments each paying 40 per cent, and the cities paying half that, because they hold the most population but have the least power to collect taxes. That would change the current formula in which each level of government pays one-third.

Ottawa has already bumped up its share of funding for some transit projects to 40 per cent from 33 per cent, which left provinces and cities each paying 30 per cent. “We appreciate that the federal government is mindful of the realities of local governments,” said Iveson, something he said Ottawa could “remind the provinces” about.

He said provinces such as Ontario and British Columbia have almost entirely funded projects such as public transit.

The meeting was the first in years where the mayors did not ask for more federal funding, instead focusing on timelines and cracking open provincial coffers.

Bowman said he hopes federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi will get Premier Brian Pallister on board with the city’s wish list.

Last fall, Winnipeg shelved eight projects it had nominated for federal funding because the cash-strapped province restricted its own spending, and the Liberals have made their funding contingent on provincial cost-matching.

Bowman wouldn’t comment on whether the federal Liberals have been effective at getting the Pallister government on side.

“What we’re trying to do is work collaboratively with the federal government, and do it in a way that allows us to assist them in liberating some of their dollars to Winnipeg and Manitoba,” he said.

He said he’s particularly concerned about the “accelerated regional roads” project, which would ease congestion for Winnipeg drivers. City council passed the initiative last summer, but it’s still waiting for federal funding through a program that ends next month.

Bowman reiterated his call to give Winnipeg funding to make up for extra policing and zoning costs associated with legalized recreational cannabis.

He said Thursday that Ottawa suggested provinces give cities 25 per cent of the $1-per-gram excise tax on cannabis products.

Last December, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau brokered a deal with all provinces except Manitoba, on a formula in which provinces take in more than three-quarters of tax revenue from legalized marijuana. A month earlier, Ottawa had suggested a 50-50 split, which the provinces mocked.

Bowman believes Ottawa’s 25 per cent bump-up for the provinces was intended to go to cities. “They have made it very clear, publicly and privately, with the provinces and with municipalities, that the intention was to provide 25 per cent of those revenues to municipalities,” he said.

He said even that amount likely won’t be enough to pay for $5 million in city expenditures. That’s the amount the Federation of Canadian Municipalities said recreational marijuana will cost Winnipeg.

Morneau’s office said Thursday they’d never explicitly suggested a percentage for provinces to pass on to municipalities, but that their extra share of excise tax was meant to be shared with towns. The federal government has limited jurisdiction over municipal issues.

Manitoba is still in talks with federal officials about the excise tax. In December, Manitoba Finance Minister Cameron Friesen said Ottawa shouldn’t wade into how much cash cities get.

“The province is best situated to broker those conversations and relationships with municipal leaders back home,” Friesen said at the time.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca