For the better part of a decade, municipalities have been expected to chip in a portion of new hospital infrastructure. This practice was brought in under the previous Ontario Liberal government and is continued by the current Ontario PC. When hospital infrastructure runs upwards into the billions of dollars this can become quite the burden on a municipality’s bottom line.
This issue came to the forefront last week during Mississauga City Council’s deliberation over whether or not to fund the Trillium Health Partner’s request for $450 million to help fund the Peter Gilgan Hospital redevelopment. The main reason cited was that the funding of health care is the sole responsibility of the province. Municipalities do not have the funds or fundraising mechanisms to invest in healthcare infrastructure of this size. According to the city, to fulfill this request would mean that the city would need to raise property taxes to pay off the debt for many years to come.
Stepping back away from this specific issue, the matter of municipalities paying for what is essentially the provinces responsibility is one that we keep coming back to time and time again on this podcast. If this is going to be the expected model going forward, then perhaps a new deal for cities is required.
To discuss the city’s rationale, and the matter of who pays for what in Ontario, we invited back to the podcast Alvin Tedjo, Mississauga City Councilor for Ward 2. He joins us to give us insight into how the city is pushing back on the provinces pressure to fund their responsibilities and to discuss why Ontario’s cities need new ways to fund their responsibilities.
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Nicholas Paul: sound editing.
The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!