Ontario’s deputy premier weighs in on Hamilton’s budget deliberations

As Hamilton’s budget deliberations continue, Ontario’s deputy premier insists the Ford government will work with municipalities as cities like Hamilton grapple with critical decisions in spending.

Hamilton city hall says even with a proposed residential property tax hike, much more is needed to cover a $2.4-billion budget. Officials say some funds will need to be pulled from the city reserve.

This is something deputy premier Sylvia Jones also says the city should make use of to meet obligations.

“These are mayors and municipal leaders, in their own right, who have care and control over substantial municipal budgets. We’ll continue to work with them on issues that are of provincial priority and of local concern.”

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When asked about the money to cover municipal budgets, Jones didn’t commit to targeted relief as Ontario’s cities continue to deal with budget season.

This week, the City of Hamilton is continuing to discuss a proposed 7.9 per cent increase in home property taxes, a hike tied to costs like city services and pressing issues on housing and homelessness.

“We simply don’t have the capacity at the local level to carry that entire investment and these folks are Hamiltonians, they’re Canadians, they’re Ontarians.” said Mayor Andrea Horwath at a city council meeting.

Councillor Brad Clark added, “The province is not coming to the table to assist us with the homeless and housing file that we have and the city is being asked to take on more and more provincial responsibility.”

However, Hamilton city staff say the property tax hike will only cover half of the $2.4-billion budget, leaving the rest to be covered from city reserve funds.

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“That is money that the individuals of Hamilton have already given to their municipal government and it is important that they make use of the tax dollars that they already have, whether that is coming in the year ahead or the reserves that they have in place.” said Jones.

Meanwhile, the province also announced Monday that cities who don’t meet housing targets will have earmarked cash move somewhere else.

Ontario cities are seeking a similar deal to the one received by Toronto that offloaded major highways to the province to free up money in budgets.

“You can’t keep going to them year after year cause they will be quickly gone. You know, there’s also some reserves that look like they’re there. So when Toronto was crying poor back in the summer, the province said ‘well, you have all these reserves’ ” Peter Graefe, of McMaster University’s Political Science department.

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“There are 444 that aren’t Toronto,” added political analyst Keith Leslie. “They are absolutely looking for the same deal that Toronto got. Municipalities are creatures of the province, not the federal government. Doug Ford and the PC’s need to strike a better deal with municipalities”

Some analysts believe severe cuts to city budgets will happen, unless there’s relief or a reintroduction of money like developmental charges for funding.

“So we have the cities in Ontario that have a lot of social service responsibilities that the province would take on in other provinces. You know the province could take it over and it would no longer be on the municipal tax base.“ said Graefe.

“They have to get that money out to municipalities without making them jump through hoops for it because they aren’t in control of when developers put shovels in the ground“ added Keith Leslie.

Also at city hall on Wednesday was the vacant unit tax that was brought back to the table for consideration this year.