Tory wants municipal fiscal imbalance fixed

Progressive Conservative Party Leader John Tory said the municipal fiscal imbalance needs to be fixed with a real commitment to act rather than the delayed review and promises the McGuinty Liberals have announced.

"I for one completely reject the length of time it

has taken to appoint this committee and the length of time it will take to report," Tory said in a speech to delegates at the annual Association of Municipalities Conference in Ottawa last week.

Tory said Premier Dalton McGuinty's announcement last Monday to begin to review the municipal fiscal imbalance over an 18-month period is completely inadequate, especially after three years of inaction by the McGuinty Liberals. Tory pointed out in comparison that David Crombie's Who Does What Panel in 1996 only took seven months and Anne Golden's GTA task force in 1995 took 11 months.

"We can talk all we want about how the imbalance was created, but one fact is clear - Mr. McGuinty has owned it, free and clear, for three years," Tory said. "He has a majority government which could have fixed it, but has chosen not to do so. I am committed to acting with dispatch where he has not."

Tory said there is no indication the McGuinty Liberals are changing their approach to date, which has been to "dictate, abdicate, and procrastinate."

He pointed to the Clean Water Act, OMERS and the LHIN legislation as examples where the McGuinty Liberals have abdicated responsibility for an increasing range of services.

"The McGuinty Liberals see no problem in dictating new regulations to municipalities without consultation only to then disappear from the picture when the time comes to pay the bill," Tory said.

He added he wants to see two major changes for municipalities. He said a Progressive Conservative

government would create a clear, agreed-upon framework for provincial versus municipal responsibilities with a realistic funding model behind it. He also said that needs to be combined with

better accountability so each level of government can be held accountable for results.

"That will be the centrepiece of any reforms we initiate, should Ontarians entrust us with government."