Mr. Speaker, I will address the Reform suggestion that municipalities should somehow be given special status or be granted the ability to go outside of their own jurisdictions or responsibilities. We must first understand that municipal governments are put in place primarily to serve constituents within their own boundaries. There is no question they are under a lot of stress.
I have served some 10 years on municipal council. In fact my wife currently sits as a member of Mississauga and Peel regional council. I am fairly close to what is going on at the municipal level.
I believe that what municipalities want more than anything from senior levels of government, whether it is the provincial or the federal government, are some long term visions, some long term planning. What they have experienced particularly in recent years has been almost knee jerk. All senior levels of government in attempting to balance their books are shifting the burden and the responsibility.
Municipalities are not allowed to run a deficit. It is an interesting concept, one which perhaps we should be looking at at this level of government. In fact we should be legislating it. We would agree with members opposite on a few of those issues. I think it has merit and makes sense at least within the mandate of a government to take a look at ensuring that we balance our books.
Municipalities are allowed to carry a certain amount of debt. They can carry up to what is referred to as 25% of their own in kind revenue. In kind revenue could include everything from taxes, to fees, to levies, to special agreements, whatever could be cash in lieu.
In the case of my municipality we are fortunate in many ways to have Pearson International Airport within the boundaries of the city of Mississauga. Every time members of this place land at Pearson, they land in Hazel McCallion country. We were going to call it McCallion international airport but that never got off the ground.
The point is that the federal government pays a substantial amount in the form of cash in lieu of taxation because the federal government does not pay property tax, nor does the province. We pay a cash in lieu of taxation to the city of Mississauga as a result of the facility that we all use, known as Pearson International Airport. We pay a cash in lieu amount which is quite substantial. When you combine all the revenue from the taxes that are derived from all the businesses at Pearson International Airport, the city would benefit from federal cash transfers to the tune of $40 million to $45 million a year, including the airport cash in lieu, the post office cash in lieu and the taxes that are paid by the businesses that exist within the structure of Pearson International Airport.
The municipality has a very important relationship with the federal government. There would also be a number of instances where the province would pay cash in lieu to the municipality.
There is a clear relationship between the federal government, the provincial government and the municipalities. In fact, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, on which I served as a board member for three years, has called upon a new definition with the province and the federal government to recognize the role of the municipal government in Confederation. I think that makes sense as well.
We tend to guard our territories a little bit in a parochial sense, or as my friend Jim Bradley would say, a “pariochal” sense. We get a little bit excited about this stuff. At the end of the day and as I hear members opposite say on a regular basis, there is only one taxpayer and clearly that is true. We should be trying to establish better relationships with our municipal colleagues and to put in place clear definitions and clear lines of authority.
I have talked about the parochial issues that surround municipal government. We can see it any day in my community. There are fights going on between Mel Lastman and Hazel McCallion, or Peter Robertson and somebody else. There are disagreements that go on. At the end of the day the mayors and the municipal councillors are elected to fight for the people within their own jurisdictions, within their own boundaries.
A councillor may be elected on a ward system. A mayor is elected at large. In some communities both are elected at large. I think Guelph elects its council at large. Members have seen some of the ads. The city of Vaughan ran some ads which caused consternation. It called itself the city above Toronto and everything which that implies, that life is better and so on. Vaughan is a beautiful community, no question.
If we were to establish tax rules and grant exemptions as the Reform members are looking at, in essence we would pit municipal politician against municipal politician. We would pit community against community.
Something that has always been avoided at the municipal level is this concept of bonusing. It is something we see in the United States. I know many of the ideas Reform puts forward do indeed come from south of the border. But this is one that would cause great disruption in the existing relationship between municipalities.
One of the things that I think has been very beneficial in the GTA has been the establishment of the mayors and chairs committee, founded by my mayor but participated in by all mayors across the GTA. The committee meets on a regular basis.
From time to time we see some acrimony. The new mayor from mega Toronto will walk in with an entourage of press and cameras and so on behind him and everyone kind of gets their back up. He will stay for a little while and then he will get up and leave after they have had a bit of a fight. I have also experienced the other side. The other side is that these politicians and their staff tend to roll up their sleeves on a regular basis and they try to work co-operatively to the benefit of the GTA.
The principle is that we want to attract business, tourists, conferences, conventions from all over the world into the GTA. Once they land at the McCallion international airport they can then decide where exactly it is they would like to locate their new plant.
In many cases the decisions are based on something as simple and yet as profound as the quality of the schools in a community. When those businesses locate they want to know that when they move their families in from Asia, Europe, the United States or wherever it is, that they are going to be able to enrol their children in good quality safe environments for them to go to school both at the elementary and secondary levels. They look at those kinds of minute details when locating here.
If we were to set up a system where we would encourage municipalities to start offering perks or bonuses to try to generate revenue or to try to beat out the guy next door to them to try to attract that business instead of working co-operatively, it is my submission that we would be establishing a system that would not work to the benefit of the people who live in those communities. At the end of the day in municipal government we all have to try to get along.
I would submit in closing that what the Reform Party and all of us here should be thinking about are ways that we can say to those municipalities “Here is some long term planning, here are some goals, here is guaranteed funding”, something they would love from provincial governments.
Channelling our energy in that direction will be much more constructive than trying to create some form of special status that will lead to increased competition in an area where a municipal government should not be trying to take business away from one of its colleagues.
I do not support Reform's motion in this regard.
