Could Canada’s Federal Gov’t be looking at a different transit funding formula besides the traditional one-third each from Federal-Provincial-Municipal? Here’s Minister Sohi:
Speaking in Montreal Wednesday morning at the annual conference of the Canadian Urban Transit Association, Amarjeet Sohi said it may be time to revise a common practice of having the city, province and federal government each pay for one third of new projects.
“The previous government has worked on one-third, one-third, one-third agreements; we will sit down with our partners to see the appropriateness of that arrangement,” Sohi told a reporter after addressing the CUTA conference.
During his speech, Sohi said that for the health of Canada’s economy and the environment, new public transit projects are urgently needed. However, he recognized that cities have a limited capacity to pay.
“Out of each dollar a Canadian pays in taxes, municipalities only get six cents,” Sohi said. “Those six cents are not enough, and that’s why all the levels of government have to work together.”
This would be a very welcome step forward for Canada’s cities.
Indeed!
BC could also take some inspiration from the climate change policy recommendations from Alberta. (Whoa. That was weird to write.)
Policy Recommendation 3 (Energy Efficiency and Energy Resilient Communities):
Foster municipal partnerships by:
* expanding green infrastructure investments and/or increasing provincial infrastructure grant flexibility to support transit oriented development, active transportation options and
public transit.
Could take some inspiration from the climate change policy recommendations from Alberta. (Whoa. That was weird to write.)
LOL!
I cannot describe any other time when there has been so much hope from jurisdictions that were so recently hopeless.
This is a great turn of events. A federal government that believes in cities. Imagine that.
It feels like I’m living in a different country…
The issue here is that we pay far too many taxes on the federal level. If we abolished or vastly reduced the GST or federal income taxes, and instead gave cities that same right of taxation we’d see far more money in cities, and less in Ottawa. That is where the disconnect is. Far too many (overpaid) bureaucrats sitting too far away handing back $s earned far away makes no sense in such a vast country where needs in PEI are different than in Lower Mainland than in Calgary than in Moncton. That is why Quebec, for example, has received far too much money for decades.
Canadians are overtaxed, especially on the income side, but undertaxed on consumption, incl. real estate. If we taxed real estate (both on acquisition via land transfer taxes, while holding via property taxes and when selling via capital gains taxes) more we’d capture far more of foreigner’s or affluent immigrants desire to park cash here FAR MORE but also aligned seniors’ high health care costs with reality.
Our incomes are overtaxed.
We need a model more like Texas: lower income taxes but higher PST and far FAR higher property taxes. We need to incent good behavior (working hard, making money while working) and tax bad behavior (spending incl. oversized real estate). That is actually real green AND good for the economy.
And, of course: we have to adjust the spending side and abuse by civil servants (via their far too powerful unions), say on benefits, pensions and sick days: http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/sick-sick-leave-benefits and here http://www.cfib-fcei.ca/english/article/7290-public-sector-workers-oped.html
The reduction of federal areas of interest and the transfer of powers to the provinces is something Quebec, for one, would welcome. Justin knows this. This issue was of particular interest to his father.
Any transfer of taxation powers go the provincial capitals. The only way the Feds can assist cities is through a programme.
As far as federal funding in general, were this to be an open blank cheque, then all provinces would be jumping in with existing and quickly envisaged projects. Therefore, this can only be funding based on the merits and value of any project.