Harper to Toronto: Find your own money

by Kaitlin | March 20, 2007 at 08:20 am

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The Canadian Federal budget, announced yesterday, is being called a "rebuke" and a "slap in the face" to the municipal governments of Canada's cities, specifically Toronto. Along with shifting the focus away from aiding cities, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty also basically told cities like Toronto (and one would assume Vancouver is lumped in there, what with our Olympic spending) to deal with our own financial problems. He wants us to be "self-reliant," which is all well and good, except a deal for cities--a nationwide transit plan, a sustainable long-term growth plan--was part of what Harper said he was going to provide when he was elected. I guess he forgot? Oops!

And he served up a slapdown to Toronto and other municipalities, suggesting that fiscal imprudence, rather than real need, was behind their demands for more money.

"I would hope that cities – and I include Toronto here – ... would reflect on their own budget exercises and try to be prudent in their budgeting and budget within their means," Flaherty said.

His comments sparked an angry reaction from urban leaders, including Toronto Mayor David Miller, who called the budget a "step backwards."

He said Flaherty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are "out of step" with the fact that Canada is a suburban and urban nation.

"He's dead wrong about this country. The census just demonstrated that more and more Canadians are living in urban areas," Miller said.

"For Canada to succeed, we need investment in those cities ... . This budget does not meet the needs of Canada's cities in any substantial way," he said.