Evidence of meeting #29 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was industry.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
Mayor, Municipality of Red Lake
I'm not sure, because I haven't weighed our problems against those of others.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
That's what we're looking for. We have to either recommend or decide where we want to go with this. We're looking to you for some solutions, because we think the agency or department is already in place, and if not, it should be at the provincial level.
If you speak to anybody coming from Quebec, we don't believe in sending any money directly from the federal government to companies. We had a panel set up on Wednesday, and they agreed it should be done through the provinces. If you're telling me it doesn't work, there's an immediate problem there.
5:10 p.m.
Mayor, City of Dryden
I have to correct that. In all truth, the infrastructure deficit is so huge that you can't fund everybody. I understand that. The money has to roll out in a stable way over a number of years to address that whole issue. So if we take time out now to put together a whole new level of something, we'll get further and further behind. Time is passing us by.
I don't say that, but if the criteria is already in place and we haven't seen it, we need to see it and be able to access it.
The Prime Minister came to Dryden, and we were very pleased to host him. It was absolutely wonderful to have the Prime Minister sit at our table with no levels of bureaucracy, face to face, dealing with issues that affect all of us. That was pretty awesome for us.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
You should get the Prime Minister to deliver you a cheque: “There you go, guys”.
5:15 p.m.
Mayor, City of Dryden
We're looking at jobs that need to be done. We're looking at infrastructure that needs to be fixed. There's money out there to do it. If there's a surplus, put that money in place and make it work for us within x number of months. Don't make it take two or three years. We're getting behind every day. We're looking at any kind of energy we can produce.
Where we sit in northwest Ontario, no matter what projects we put forward or how we look to fund them, if we could get them off the ground tomorrow we couldn't get them past the gridlock in Wawa. So where will our projects go?
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to start with the mayors. I was on council for 13 years so I appreciate the work you do. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it against the law for an Ontario municipality to run a deficit? Is it correct that you must have a balanced budget?
5:15 p.m.
Mayor, Municipality of Red Lake
We do. We just increase the taxes to balance it.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
5:15 p.m.
Mayor, City of Dryden
Dryden actually debentures for other people, but we probably have $5 million. We're well within our ratio as far as debt goes. We have $8 million that we're hoping to set aside for a waste water treatment plant.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
We've had discussions with our friends from the Bloc that we shouldn't be putting money down on debt. But the $10 billion is actually 2.9% of the $456 billion we have in debt. I want to make the point that it's much different from what municipalities face in terms of debt load. I was interested in what your municipalities had.
On another question, we've extended the gas tax and made it permanent. How does the gas tax work for communities in the north such as yours? Do you have an area? Is it just your town? I don't understand it. I know how it works in my region of Halton and Burlington.
5:15 p.m.
Mayor, City of Dryden
It helps us with road construction. It helps to keep our Handy-Transit van on the road.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Is it just the money Dryden generates, or do you have a bigger catchment area? How is that money generated?
5:15 p.m.
Mayor, Municipality of Red Lake
Likewise, but we're about half the size of Dryden.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
So Dryden has about 8,200.
You were aware that we extended the gas tax.
