{"id":2209,"date":"2007-08-20T12:43:49","date_gmt":"2007-08-20T16:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2209"},"modified":"2013-01-21T15:18:19","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:18:19","slug":"mcguinty-delivers-body-blow-to-municipalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/08\/20\/mcguinty-delivers-body-blow-to-municipalities\/","title":{"rendered":"McGuinty delivers body blow to municipalities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1031\/532340300_5a8b2410e5.jpg?v=0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Within hours of <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=2205\">asking<\/a> whether Dalton McGuinty and John Tory would offer a hand up to Toronto or sucker punch us at this week&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amo.on.ca\">Association of Municipalities of Ontario<\/a> meeting, the <em>Toronto Star<\/em> is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/News\/Ontario\/article\/247922\">reporting<\/a> that McGuinty has chosen to deliver, what I&#8217;d call, a body blow to all municipalities.<\/p>\n<p>In spite of the <a href=\"http:\/\/ontariondp.com\/node\/1530\">NDP attempt<\/a> to avoid a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrace to the bottom&#8217; approach to funding promises for municipalities, it appears that&#8217;s exactly what McGuinty is committed to doing by announcing his four-year\u00a0$935 million pledge.<\/p>\n<p>If this promise is fulfilled, it would give Toronto\u00a0a paltry\u00a0$38 million in 2008 and $217 million per year by 2011.<\/p>\n<p>While the City\u00a0will welcome any penny that lands on its doorstep at this point, $38 million is an appalling offer to Torontonians, especially now that we know Queen&#8217;s Park is swimming in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/article\/247337\">2.3 billion surplus dollars<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll leave the analysis on this one to the usually insufferable and truth-challenged card-carrying Tory, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/councillors\/minnan_wong1.htm\">Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong<\/a>, courtesy the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/article\/247595\">Star<\/a><\/em>: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153(Finance Minister Greg) Sorbara needs to get a crowbar, open his wallet, and give Toronto the resources it needs to be successful.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>But having made that comment, Minnan-Wong needs to start riding his own political horse, John Tory.<\/p>\n<p>Tory hasn&#8217;t come close to offering a specific promise to municipalities. Besides calling for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/audit\/reports.htm\">redundant audits<\/a> of the City of Toronto, at this point, the PC leader&#8217;s commitment begins and ends with completing the McGuinty-initiated <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mah.gov.on.ca\/Page182.aspx\">Provincial-Municipal Review<\/a> scheduled to report post-election. However, Tory himself has criticized McGuinty&#8217;s review as a ploy to avoid the issue. (There&#8217;s a saying that includes pots, kettles and black. I&#8217;m sure you know it.)<\/p>\n<p>The problem on this file for Tory might be that he waited too long to take a position. At this point, the Liberals and NDP have both staked their ground in this debate, leaving little space for the Tories. The PC wouldn&#8217;t go higher than the NDP and, unless they offer no new funding whatsoever (unlikely since Tory is running in Toronto), they can&#8217;t get much lower than the Liberals. Going up the middle may be an option but among party activists, offering to spend more on Toronto than the Liberals wouldn&#8217;t be popular. That said, John Tory has adopted the Liberal stance on many contentious issues since he took over the PC leadership so he may go that route again.<\/p>\n<p>But unless Tory surprises everyone and tries to champion the cause of municipalities as Hampton has, McGuinty&#8217;s expected announcement sets the stage for another massively disappointing election for Toronto. The only way the result will change now is if voters take on our city&#8217;s cause and force provincial candidates of all stripes\u00a0to do better for us. It won&#8217;t be easy but we may have some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/servlet\/story\/LAC.20070820.ONTARIO20\/TPStory\/TPNational\/Ontario\/\">momentum<\/a> going in our favour.<\/p>\n<p>And to those <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=2099#comments\">city councillors<\/a> who voted to defer the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/finance\/revenue_tools.htm\">new taxes<\/a>: If you were so committed to making funding for municipalities <em>the<\/em> issue this election, how on earth could you allow McGuinty to believe he could live to see another term in office with a promise like this?!?<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo courtesy <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/bonnechance\/\"><em>bonnechance<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Within hours of asking whether Dalton McGuinty and John Tory would offer a hand up to Toronto or sucker punch us at this week&#8217;s Association of Municipalities of Ontario meeting, the Toronto Star is reporting that McGuinty has chosen to deliver, what I&#8217;d call, a body blow to all municipalities. In spite of the NDP<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/08\/20\/mcguinty-delivers-body-blow-to-municipalities\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;McGuinty delivers body blow to municipalities&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6534,408,3216,4550,31,644,45,6539,444,636,6540,316,44,46,405,339,19,341,391],"class_list":["post-2209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-association-of-municipalities-of-ontario","tag-councillor","tag-dalton-mcguinty","tag-denzil-minnan-wong","tag-election","tag-finance-minister","tag-funding-cities","tag-greg","tag-john-tory","tag-ontario","tag-pc-leader","tag-queen","tag-queens-park","tag-taxes","tag-the-star","tag-the-toronto-star","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-star","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>McGuinty delivers body blow to municipalities - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/08\/20\/mcguinty-delivers-body-blow-to-municipalities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"McGuinty delivers body blow to municipalities - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Within hours of asking whether Dalton McGuinty and John Tory would offer a hand up to Toronto or sucker punch us at this week&#8217;s Association of Municipalities of Ontario meeting, the Toronto Star is reporting that McGuinty has chosen to deliver, what I&#8217;d call, a body blow to all municipalities. 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