You Still Have Time To Think About It

Toronto, the wait continues

By ROB GRANATSTEIN

Premier Dalton McGuinty sat at my dining room table and told me, and the Toronto Sun editorial board, cities make the province and the country go.

"If our cities do well then our provinces do well and the country as a whole does well, and it's not the other way around," McGuinty said last weekend. "If we could find a way to further strengthen our municipal partners it would be good for all of us."

Bingo. So Dalton must be ready to see our cities work.

The issue the urban centres in this province are begging to have solved is the downloading of social services. Welfare, social housing, Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and the Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB) are provincial programs that account for 32% of the City of Toronto's spending, or $2.6 billion. Toronto argues it is spending $720 million too much funding provincial services off the property tax base.

"I've made a commitment recently to upload ODSP and ODB costs, you can only do that over time, in an affordable way," McGuinty said. That would be worth a paltry $38 million in 2008 for Toronto.

So, I asked: "If you're doing it at a rate that's affordable for the province, aren't you just keeping it unaffordable for the city?"

"No," McGuinty firmly responded. "If I had a magic wand and I could undo all that has been downloaded, I would. But I can't. I think what voters are looking for is are we making progress? Are there demonstrable results, are class sizes, in fact, down? Are test scores, in fact, up? Are there really more young people going to college and university? Are there really more doctors, are there really more nurses?"

Let me off the spin machine before I throw up. How did we end up in health care on a question about cities?

Yes, as McGuinty states, he has uploaded public health costs, ambulance costs -- both worth peanuts -- and turned over the gas tax, giving the city hundreds of millions of new dollars which they never would have had in the past. Five times more money than the Harris/Eves Tories sent to T.O., he points out.

But it isn't enough. McGuinty knows it. No matter how badly you think David Miller is running Toronto, on this issue the mayor even gets agreement from the Denzil Minnan-Wongs and Karen Stintzes of council.

McGuinty's own government launched a review of how the province and cities share responsibilities and funding. It seems quite clear, based on his answers to the Sun, that when the group reports back in early 2008, the Liberals will file the recommendations in the drawer next to the 2003 book of promises, never to be spoken of again.

McGuinty said when he became premier Toronto asked for three things: To stop being used as a convenient punching bag, like the Harris/Eve Tories did; to be given new powers; and to be given more money.

"I've met all three of those demands," McGuinty said.

McGuinty did leave the door open to how pressure might better be relieved on property tax payers, and said he's jumped on Miller's campaign for one cent of the GST for cities from the feds.

"We are doing our part. The city itself has a responsibility, as well. They're going to have look at cost constraint, they're going to have look at new revenues and they're going to have look at getting more help from the two higher levels of government, or any combination thereof."

Well, as firm funding commitments go, that stunk.

So, as you head into the voting booth today, consider this: What is being done for Toronto? What is being done for Mississauga or Richmond Hill or Pickering?

It's important question because there is only one taxpayer. And while your taxes may be set to fall federally as Stephen Harper rolls in a $14-billion surplus, and are holding tight in Ontario where McGuinty has more than $2.3 billion in surplus, all that good will be stripped out of your wallet at the local level.

Cities may make the province and country go, but listening to McGuinty just makes my head spin. Torontonians be warned.