Follow The Money........

.......and the trail will take you to Ottawa. The government of the day decides where that money goes and if they shutdown funding for a particular program it is natural that the province needs to rethink their budget and if they don't have enough money they will shift the program cost to the end user. Just remember who was in charge of the money in the 90s in Ottawa.

Public housing turf war must end TheStar.com - comment - Public housing turf war must end

September 17, 2007

For years, a veritable city within a city, with a population as large as Prince Edward Island, has been left to fester in Toronto, the result of persistent neglect by the provincial and federal governments.

More than 164,000 people live in 58,500 public housing units run by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation around the city. And, as the Star revealed in major feature on Saturday, far too many of these apartments are plagued with leaking roofs and mould, cockroaches, crumbling balconies, broken heating and air circulation systems, rusted plumbing and fraying electrical wiring.

Unfortunately, such deplorable conditions have existed for years. But governments at Queen's Park and in Ottawa, despite promises to help, have done little to ease either the crushing problem of quality and supply of affordable housing in Toronto.

Now, several tenants are trying to urge their neighbours to speak up in order to get the problem of dilapidated public housing on the political agenda in time for the Oct. 10 provincial election.

The problem of aging public housing has existed for decades. But it became worse after the provincial government under premier Mike Harris downloaded the cost of maintaining public housing stock to the city in 2001. At that time, the buildings already needed $230 million in repairs. But the province refused to transfer any money to cover those costs. Since then, the bill has grown to $300 million.