The Big City Vote – The Greens

“Canada’s biggest fiscal imbalance is the imbalance between municipal governments and everyone else,” the Green Party claims in their Looking Forward Plan, and then go on to flirt with Canada’s big cities by referencing Jane Jacobs.

In order to address this issue, the Greens propose doubling the amount of federal funding available to cities, using three mechanisms:

1. Increasing the federal Gas Tax Transfer to municipalities from 2.5 to 5 cents/litre (in the initial gas-tax transfer proposal, the federal gas tax transfer is supposed to increase to 5 cents/litre in 2009).

2. Allocating 1 cent from GST to municipal governments for “Green Cities” initiatives, on a per captia basis.

3. Creating a new pool of infrastructure funding by changing tax rules to create Municipal Registered Retirement Savings Plans Bonds which can be held in RRSPs

In order to get this money, municipal governments would have to sign contracts to ensure that infrastructure wouild reduce sprawl and greenhouse gas emissions, support urban densification, provide speedy, safe and pleasant mass transit, safe cycling paths and energy and water conservation initiatives. For instance, the portion of GST would be transferred to cities through 6 Municipal Superfunds to:

1. Clean up and decontaminate brownfields
2. Upgrade water treatment, sewage treatment, and recycling facilities to be more efficient and sustainable.
3. Develop and refurbish sports, cultural and recreational facilities
4. Improve and expand mass-transit and car-sharing initiatives
5. Promote walking and cycling though improved infrastructure, smart growth, transit-oriented development
6. Build energy-efficient co-operative and affordable housing.

If elected, the Greens would also cancel all funding for specific highways and bridge expansions that encourage sprawl and reliance on cars. Less controversial are promises include offering tax incentives for businesses who give their employees transit passes and financially supporting provinces that give free transit passes to people living below the poverty line. Back into controversial territory: the Greens propose making employee parking a taxable benefit.

Finally, the Green party platform includes plans to build and rehabilitate 30,000 affordable homes each year for the next 10 years, as well as provide guaranteed loans and credit for housing co-ops to create energy-efficient, quality housing.

The president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities released a statement that the Green party’s Looking Forward Plan “starts to address the concerns of cities and communities.”

Overall, I’d say that the Green party’s proposed policies are based upon the links between the urban form and the environment, health, transportation and resource use. There are some concrete ideas – such municipal bonds, which are used in many American cities – that could be brought forth by a Green presence in parliament.

____________

This week, Spacing Montreal takes a look at what each federal party has in store for cities. What does the federal governance have to do with local sewers, buses, rents and property taxes? For an overview of the issues, see Monday’s post.