Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for inviting us to speak today.
FCM has been the voice of municipal governments since 1901. Our members represent 90% of the Canadian population, or almost 2,000 municipal governments across this country.
When the global economic crisis hit, the federal government teamed up with municipalities to take coordinated action to create jobs and protect Canadian families and businesses.
Now, as growing uncertainty again threatens world markets, the Government of Canada must continue working with cities and communities to strengthen our economic foundations and to protect our quality of life.
Although stimulus spending is over, Canada must build on the economic action plan's successes, overcoming barriers to common-sense cooperation that too often keep governments from working together.
By the end of this year, municipalities will have built and helped pay for $10 billion in EAP projects. In doing so, our communities are creating 100,000 jobs and meeting 50% of the plan's total jobs target. Ottawa's growing collaboration with municipalities has produced policies and programs that deliver better value for Canadians, cutting red tape and streamlining funding approvals. Together we have started to repair some of the damage done to our communities by many years of under-investment and downloading. We cannot afford to lose that ground. Better planning, partnerships, and programs--these are trademarks of smart government.
But despite recent investments, we can still see the danger signs all around us: traffic gridlock, crumbling roads and bridges, rising police costs, and a housing shortage that puts new jobs out of workers' reach.
From St. John's to Montreal, from Inuvik to Victoria, the symptoms vary but the cause is the same: a tax system that has taken too much out of our communities and put too little back in.
Without a share of the income and sales taxes generated by new growth, communities have been forced to raise property taxes, cut core services, and, more often, put infrastructure repairs off. The resulting infrastructure deficit is bad for families, businesses, and our economy.
Of current federal investments in municipalities, 40% are scheduled to expire by 2014. These are not one-time stimulus dollars. They are core investments to repair roads, house low-income seniors, and keep police on our streets. These investments must be protected and put on a long-term track.
In Budget 2011 the government committed to work with municipalities, provinces, territories, and the private sector to develop a new long-term federal infrastructure plan. The new plan will give Canada the opportunity to end a long decline in its municipal infrastructure, improve transit and transportation networks, and fight traffic gridlock. In Budget 2012 the federal government must build on the intergovernmental partnership that pulled us through these darkest days of the global recession to achieve other important national objectives as well, including supporting front-line policing, protecting public safety, and fixing holes in Canada's housing system.
I'd now like to take a quick moment to expand on each of these three priorities: infrastructure, policing, and housing. Municipal infrastructure is the foundation of our economy. Our small businesses need quality roads and bridges to deliver their goods and services. Workers need fast, efficient public transit to connect them to jobs. And growing companies count on high-quality community services, from libraries to hockey rinks, to attract skilled workers. The federal government's recent commitment to develop a new long-term federal infrastructure plan is an opportunity to stop the decline in our infrastructure and secure our future economic foundations. All governments, federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal, must work together and with the private sector to take stock of Canada's infrastructure and establish a fully funded long-term infrastructure plan.
Second, there is nothing more important to Canadians than the safety of their families and communities. Canada's policing system, however, is badly in need of repair. During the past 30 years an unsustainable share of Canada's policing duties have been shifted onto municipalities, either through direct downloading or the inability of an overburdened RCMP to fulfill its full responsibilities. Today, municipalities pay more than 60% of the total policing costs, including $600 million worth of downloaded federal policing duties in areas such as border security, international drug trafficking, and cyber crime. All orders of government must work together to address the issues of policing roles and responsibilities and the allocation of resources.
Growing holes in Canada's housing market are harming communities, taxpayers and the national economy.
Rising house prices and rental shortages are making it difficult for communities to attract the workers they need to support the national economy.
Tens of thousands of families, senior citizens, and new immigrants are struggling to find adequate, affordable shelter, yet $380 million per year in affordable housing and homelessness programs is currently set to expire in 2014. I'd be pleased to share more with you on the housing aspect of our presentation later on.
Thank you.