Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of this House the crisis facing Canadian cities.
Last week, residents of Mississauga were hit with a 9% tax increase to help fund the city's crumbling infrastructure. Then mayor Susan Fennell of Brampton said that she too might have to raise property taxes by up to 10%.
Nationally the infrastructure deficit facing Canadian cities is over $100 billion. The cold hard fact is that the Conservative government is ignoring urban and suburban Canadians.
Last month's so-called mini budget offered no help to Canadian cities. Instead, it left mayors across Canada scrambling for funds to help their decaying roads, bridges and sewers.
What does the government have against cities? Is it because they do not vote Conservative? The government should put its ideology and politics aside and show real leadership on the cities file.