Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
I am very pleased to be with you today on behalf of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. As you know, we represent over 90% of the Canadian population in more than 1,900 municipalities across the country.
I would like to begin by thanking all parties in the House of Commons for your support of the cities and communities across the country.
Before I start, you are probably aware that the stimulus update was released today. There are about 23,000 projects. About half of them are municipal. I'm sure you are all well aware that the stimulus program is a matter of some debate in Ottawa, but for our members, it is first and foremost a huge practical challenge. We're on the ground here. We're focused on finishing up these projects in order to fight the recession and make life better for our communities.
What I am here to talk about today is what happens after stimulus.
From the gas tax fund to the Building Canada plan, Ottawa has started helping municipalities fix their aging infrastructure. I hope you will help us protect the gains we have made together.
Honourable members, if you leave here today with only one message, I hope it will be this one: the Government of Canada must balance its books without downloading its deficit onto the municipalities. Nothing has done more damage to our communities and to our infrastructure than downloading. Downloading might make federal and provincial balance sheets look better, but only by pushing those deficits into our local streets. That's what happened in the 1990s, and Canadians don't want that to happen again.
For decades the federal, provincial, and territorial governments downloaded costly responsibilities onto municipalities--responsibilities for policing, affordable housing, and immigrant settlement, among others. Local governments lacked the financial tools to meet these new responsibilities. They were forced to raise property taxes and delay badly needed infrastructure investment. The result is where we are today, with $123 billion in municipal infrastructure deficits.
Recent investments have helped to slow that decline in our infrastructure. Together, governments have started rebuilding our roads, our water systems, and our public transit. We must protect those gains and prepare to build on them in the future. We must protect them or new and growing challenges will overwhelm us.
One such challenge is the traffic gridlock that is bringing our largest cities to a standstill. In our two biggest cities, metro Montreal and the greater Toronto area, the average commuter is now spending 80 minutes a day on the road. That's longer than is spent in New York, London, or even Los Angeles.
Rural and remote communities are facing their own challenges. They are struggling to build the roads, bridges, and community centres they need to sustain their populations. Of course, the challenge is especially urgent in the north, where climate change is melting the permafrost below practically every street. In the Northwest Territories alone, protecting buildings will cost $230 million, which is about $5,000 for every man, woman, and child in the territory.
Downloading even more onto municipalities would take away any chance we have of meeting these growing challenges. It would undo the recent progress we have made, and it would leave us in a bigger hole than before. Downloading would create dangerous new cracks in our economic foundations, and it would hurt us all.
Our small businesses need quality roads and bridges to deliver goods and services. Our workers need fast, efficient public transit to connect them to new jobs.
Our growing companies count on high-quality community services, from libraries to hockey rinks, to attract skilled workers. For Canada to compete globally, we need modern infrastructure and transportation networks. We need cities and communities that are among the world's very best.
Therefore, as governments get their books in order, they must work together to protect what they have achieved in recent years. They must show they are ready to meet growing challenges without just shifting the bill to municipalities.
One test of that commitment is already before us. Earlier this year, Environment Canada proposed new federal waste water regulations. The regulations require communities to rebuild one out of every four sewage treatment plants across the country.
At this time, the estimated cost is $13 billion. Downloading the full cost of these regulations would push many municipal budgets to the breaking point, force municipalities to raise taxes, and delay other important investments. But there is hope.
Recently Environment Minister Jim Prentice began talks with FCM on the waste water regulations. The goal is to find a fair and affordable plan for the future. We need to make sure those talks proceed.
Of course our crumbling water systems are just one reason why we won't solve the infrastructure deficit in the next few years. But we can do our best to keep it from getting worse. We must start now or else three or four years of deficit arguing will lead to another lost decade in our communities.
In closing, I want to leave you with three simple recommendations.