Lucky Quebec

Cross-posted from the Eye Weekly blog.

The Province of Quebec and its municipalities have just struck a deal that’ll make Toronto, and other Ontario municipalities, jealous. Over the next seven years, cities in Quebec will be reimbursed the money they pay in provincial sales tax, bringing in an additional $472 million a year.

As the Globe and Mail reports, “municipalities will have the option to reduce property taxes, improve infrastructure, or pay down their debt.”

Some other excerpts from the article sure to make Torontonians cringe with envy:

“This is one of the more important things I’ve done in my career. It’s recognition of the important role municipal leaders play in our society. They deserve to be teated with respect” — Jean Charest.

“We are no longer creatures of the province. We have now become partners” — Sherbrooke Mayor Jean Perrault, president of the Quebec Union of Municipalieis.

Charest received a standing ovation when the agreement was announced. Says the Globe, the agreement is part of his government’s plan to rebuild credibility with voters before the next election. Interesting. Charest hopes to win votes by being nice to cities. Harper hopes to win votes in the next federal election by being nice to Quebec. If municipal issues are valuable to Quebecers, however, Harper might be in trouble. He has repeatedly disappointed city dwellers by failing to acknowledge municipal issues in his speeches. In his first major speech in Toronto, which took place last week, he remained silent on topics such as immigration, cash for infrastructure and the fiscal imbalance.

Marie Bountrogianni, Ontario’s minister of intergovernmental affairs, was quoted in the Toronto Star April 22 as saying, “I was surprised that [the dispute with Ontario and the other provinces on how tax revenues are shared] wasn’t at least mentioned…You are in Toronto, which generates the majority of taxes which helps people across the country.”

Which brings me to Eye Weekly’s April 20 editorial — “Big brother is broke”. Quebec can afford $7-a-day childcare, a $500-per-person tax cut and a $3.8 billion deal to fund its cities. Ontario, on the other hand, has a deficit of $1.4 billion and no universal childcare program. Our province says it’s too poor to hand over some of its taxing powers to municipalities, yet it sends $2 billion in transfer payments to Jean Charest. If Ontario is really in so much trouble fiscally (it’s possible part of the problem is that the Ontario government is just not as progressive as Quebec) sending $2 billion to Quebec just doesn’t make sense. As our editorial argues, “the system needs to be fixed”.