ONT ELECTION: Uncertainty in municipal uploading agreement

A few weeks ago Chris Drew (@chrisjamesdrew) asked me for my thoughts on a Globe and Mail article about the uploading agreement and the Ontario provincial election titled, "McGuinty courts McCallion in the battle for Ontario's suburbs". The article started by showing that big city mayors are increasingly becoming influencial in provincial politics. Dalton McGuinty was trying to leverage the success of my former mayor Hazel McCallion and Tim Hudak was trying to leverage Mayor Rob Ford's success in breaking the Liberal stronghold in the City of Toronto. The main issue at hand was the PC Party's inability to commit to upholding the current uploading agreement which repays municipalities millions of dollars per year for the downloading of services during the Harris years.

Randall Denley, PC candidate in Ottawa West-Nepean, argued that the province can't afford to continue with the uploading arrangement and that cities should focus on getting their fiscal houses in order.

“The municipalities are disappointed because they’ve been given free money, essentially, from the provincial government...Now reality has hit, and they’re not very happy.”

Now I wouldn't call it "free money" since for years municipalities paid out millions of dollars to provide services downloaded from the province.

I was first introduced to this debate about the uploading agreement when our mayor Jim Watson attended the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) meeting last month. PC leader Tim Hudak was unable to promise that the current uploading agreement would be upheld. This led to some pretty heated back and forth tweeting between Mayor Watson and PC MMP Lisa McLeod.

"@timhudak- very concerned what you said at AMO- that you wouldn't commit to the final 5 years of the upload agreement signed by AMO and Prov"

"@MacLeodLisa. So will you fight to reverse your leaders policy to not honour this deal that benefits ALL 444 municipalities?"

"@MacLeodLisa he was asked by journalist if he would honour upload agreement and he would not commit! Delegates are not pleased."

The tweets went on for a while.

I've been a conservative supporter since I started voting 13 years ago; I've never voted otherwise even at the provincial level which I find least exciting and with which I'm the least engaged (perhaps odd for someone who was born and raised in the provincial capital). I've volunteered for the federal Conservatives and have worked for a Conservative MP on the Hill. But as someone who is a strong believer in the role that cities are increasingly playing in the national and global economies, this issue created a conflict in my heart. I'm a conservative supporter who would like to see the uploading agreement upheld.

Canada’s political parties present urban agendas ahead of election

Here is a feature I wrote for CityMayors.com about the urban agenda in the recent Canadian federal election. Enjoy!

http://www.citymayors.com/politics/canada-elections-2011.html

Kevin Bourne
reinventingottawa.blogspot.com

DC Mayor fights Congress for municipal autonomy: Lessons for Ottawa

In the capital of the United States there has been mounting tension between the City and Congress with the climax being this past Monday. DC Mayor Vincent Gray and some city councillors attended a rally by DC Vote, a “non-profit dedicated to securing full voting representation in Congress and full democracy for over 600,000 residents of Washington, DC”.

As a result of the rally, which blocked Constitution Avenue, forty-one protesters were arrested including Mayor Gray and six city councillors.

The Mayor wrote in an article, “...two riders contained in the budget deal impinge on the District of Columbia’s autonomy. One limits our ability to fund, using our own money, reproductive services [abortion] for low-income women; another imposes a continued school-voucher program on the District. If these reports are correct, then the District of Columbia’s right to govern itself has, once again, been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency...DC residents from all wards of the city should express their outrage, as I have over the colonial status of the District of Columbia.”

Over the past few months I have grown very frustrated with the National Capital Commission and their approach to development which appears to be very top-down, controlling and stifling to new ideas. The issue is not the organization, but the approach. Prior to the events in Washington, I’ve been thinking about whether I would ever see a mayor and city council in Ottawa advocate passionately for local autonomy, even to the point of protest. Clearly, as seen in Washington, holding federal agencies to account in that manner is possible.

Canada’s political parties present urban agendas ahead of election

Here is the link for my latest article for CityMayors.com about the urban agendas of the political parties in the Canadian federal election. Enjoy!

http://www.citymayors.com/politics/canada-elections-2011.html

Kevin Bourne
reinventingottawa.blogspot.com