Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Willowdale.
Municipalities across Canada are rising up against a government that dangles the carrot of infrastructure money but then puts enough strings on it to keep it in political limbo. In other words, it wants to give the money if it is necessary but not necessarily give it.
Every single member of the House has constituents facing very tough times. The words “infrastructure spending” are nothing more than a conversation if money is not reaching our ridings, municipalities and cities. The cities want less talk and more action.
The inability of municipalities to contribute to major infrastructure projects is one of our system's vital flaws. The fact is that of the revenues collected by all levels of government, the federal government receives 49¢, the provincial and territorial governments receive 43¢ and, yes, that leaves only 8¢ for municipal governments.
To add further weight to this imbalance, for every dollar spent on infrastructure the federal government gets 35¢ back through income and sales tax. One would think the federal government would be doing more to reach out to the one level of government most affected by this imbalance, the one level of government that must manage the fallout from inadequate infrastructure funding.
Yet, because of administrative delays, the cost shared $8.8 billion federal building Canada fund announced in the 2007 budget has so far financed very few projects, leaving close to $3 billion in unspent federal money. The application process for the building Canada fund makes a complicated mess out of transfers that should be seamless.
In fact, the provisions of the program are ridiculous. The communities component project funding for municipalities with less than 100,000 residents is based on a one-third model, a split between all three levels of government. If the community cannot come up with the cash, the federal government will withhold its commitment and give nothing to the municipality. As a businessman, this kind of logic makes absolutely no sense.
Let me get this straight. Cities like metro Vancouver and Montreal, with millions of taxpayers, are having a hard time paying for basic infrastructure such as road repairs and municipalities with small populations are going to be asked to pick up one-third of the tab. This is not going to work.
The government has played politics with municipalities, a tactic that it seems to pull with any issue of importance. In 2005, the Liberal government renewed a number of infrastructure programs, including the municipal rural infrastructure fund and the public transit capital trust. Over seven years $11.5 billion would have been transferred to communities for desperately needed infrastructure projects, but since taking power the Conservative government has made its priority to eliminate programs that have the ability to make a real difference in our communities. The Kelowna accord is a perfect example. So too is the cancellation of the Liberal national child care program.
In the case of infrastructure, the Conservatives took the municipal rural infrastructure fund and the public transit capital trust and removed over $7.5 billion of that funding to put toward the building Canada fund. In 2007, the new $8.8 billion building Canada fund was introduced to provide much needed help to fund the long list of infrastructure projects from coast to coast to coast. Unfortunately, in the program's first year the building Canada fund flowed zero dollars into the economy.
At the end of the day, the government can tour the country and make announcement after announcement, as many as it wants, but until the money reaches the communities that need it most and flows directly to the shovel ready projects Conservatives are talking about, it is all a fantasy. There is a better way to flow funding to cities and not surprisingly, it was previously implemented by a Liberal government.
Currently, the gas tax is one of the most stable and reliable sources of revenue for municipalities and used for: public transit, community energy, local roads, and improvements to water, waste water and solid waste infrastructure.
Not only is this motion proposing that at least half of all infrastructure moneys be distributed through the gas tax for the next two years, but it also asks for the suspension of the municipal matching commitments that are part of the current formula. Let us allow Canada's cities to catch up from years of neglect, cost downloading and underfunding.
If we talk to any mayor across Canada, it is clear that most are missing the cooperative relationship that had existed before the Prime Minister arrived onto the scene. What the government fails to understand is that this is not the time for rhetoric. Empty promises about infrastructure spending do not put workers back to work or assist in making up for the losses Canadian families have felt in their investment portfolios.
We must stop looking at municipal infrastructure issues through the lens of the Constitution. Instead, we must understand that cities are the economic engines of our economy and poor infrastructure is an obstacle to growth.
The Minister of Finance has been hiding out in recent weeks, keeping a low profile as the economy sinks into deeper trouble. His absence makes sense. When he deals with the provinces, he tries to bully them and when he hears the cities speak up for their needs, he calls them “whiners”.
The government is playing a political game of chicken with the municipalities. It allows them to collect minimal revenues and then gives them an ultimatum under threat of withdrawing funds. This is not the basis of any kind of relationship that puts the needs of the country ahead of politics. But once again the government is so concerned with maintaining power at all costs, it cannot get away from petty politics, even when the future of the country hangs in the balance.
To conclude, I just want to remind Canada's mayors and councils that help is on the way. The Liberal Party of Canada has committed to holding the government to account with quarterly performance reports which the government has agreed to provide to Canadians and the House of Commons. Failure to distribute the infrastructure money in a timely fashion would surely be a recipe for defeat, something that we are not afraid to do if the government does not start flowing money to communities.
I urge all members of the House to support this worthwhile motion in the name of our municipalities, in the name of the residents of our municipalities, which hang in the balance as we debate this important issue here today.