 | ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|
|
Home->Elsewhere |
||
|
The Liberals Owe Cities a Debt by John Honderich July 15, 2004 Memo to: Paul Martin Re: A new deal for cities Will the cities’ agenda finally make it big time in Ottawa? For many outsiders, it seems the urban stars are in unique alignment. You have intellectually championed the urban agenda for years and the NDP, with Jack Layton at its helm, is just as committed. Yet, if this special opportunity is not seized now, the chance to do something significant on a new deal for cities might slip away. So, as you prepare your cabinet and priorities, you might want to consider the following six factors: First, it has become an accepted tenet of economic thought that Canada’s large cities are the engines of growth for our economy. As go the cities, so goes Canada’s economy. Thus, if you want ever-increasing tax revenues to fund those expensive health-care and child-care promises you’ve made, you’d better make sure the cash cows are in good fiscal and economic shape. Long-term investing for the future rarely makes for sexy politics. Yet judicious spending on public transport, infrastructure projects, housing, immigrant training and cultural development invariably pays off in the long run. Second, the city that needs the most attention, quite frankly, is the largest. Greater Toronto provides almost a quarter of the country’s GDP. As a consequence, its needs are that much greater. Listen to Mississauga’s Hazel McCallion who has now become the city of Toronto’s biggest booster, “If the centre and the core is not in good shape, it will eventually filter out on all of us in 905,” she says. The statistics on the GTA’s urban needs have been well chronicled. The need is clear. And, oh yes, Mr. Martin – the GTA delivered you 40 seats. That would be 30 per cent of your entire contingent. Third, during the election campaign, you gave your word you’d do something this year. In fact, you stated categorically at that Montreal mayors’ summit that your officials would start negotiating a sharing of gas tax revenues “this summer” with a completion date set for the end of the year, Indeed, your officials told the mayors they could count on the revenues in planning for their April 2005 budgets. It sure sounded to me like a promise when you made it. And you now fully understand the delicacy of keeping promises you’ve made. That point was made rather forcefully during the recent election campaign. Fourth, you owe one to the big city mayors. At a time when your campaign was headed dangerously downward, the mayors issued a declaration at their Montreal summit decrying the urban platform of Stephen Harper. “Barbarians at the Gates,” thundered Vancouver’s Larry Campbell. “A recipe for disaster” added Toronto’s David Miller, referring to the Conservatives’ urban platform – or rather lack of it. As you might imagine, there were some misgivings among the mayors (some of them Conservatives) that they may be stabbing themselves in their collective backs by challenging the apparent frontrunner so aggressively. Yet they opted to take their bold action – and follow it up with town forums and the like to drive home their point. Fifth, you might want to check the election results in those cities. That is clearly where you fashioned your comeback. While no one can seriously argue that the urban agenda was the deciding factor in voting intention, it is instructive to note, the results of some election polling done by Probe Research Inc. of Winnipeg. In its poll of 1,800 urban dwellers, it found that 85 per cent felt the future of Canada’s cities was either a “somewhat” or “very” important factor in their voting decision. Interestingly, the number was highest in Toronto. Furthermore, 57 per cent felt a new deal for cities should be one of Ottawa’s priorities. It is also worthwhile checking the results in places like Vancouver where the Liberals outpolled the Conservatives by a 2 to 1 margin, in bellwether London where Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco held a town hall on her concerns, in Mississauga and Brampton where Tory mayors McCallion and Susan Fennell didn’t hide their concerns, and in Toronto, where Miller repeatedly told voters to “vote Toronto.” A check of the electoral map reveals you did extraordinarily well in all of them. Finally, and most importantly, a new deal is the right thing to do now. This is not a partisan issue. The need is real and has been acknowledged as such. At that Montreal summit you concluded by declaring: “We have a phenomenal opportunity if we can get our act together.” Amen. And over to you. With permission from John Honderich, former publisher ofThe Toronto Star.
|
