Of Money & Responsibility

Brenda Hogg, Regional and Local Councillor
Town of Richmond Hill

Recently the Richmond Hill Council voted unanimously to withhold our $15.6 million share of the Provincially mandated "pooling tax". Since 1998 we have sent our pooling tax to Toronto to help pay for welfare and social housing in Toronto while services suffered in York Region. This was not an easy decision for Council. As elected officials, we are the least likely people to engage in civil disobedience.

Here is some of the background: In 2001, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities took up a public awareness campaign to draw attention to the fiscal and tax inequity facing our municipal Councils. It was calculated that the Federal government received 50 per cent of tax dollars, the Province 42 per cent and the Municipal government only 8 per cent of every tax dollar. Measure this against our increase in revenue percentages and you will uncover the source of our discontent. The Federal government has seen a 16 per cent increase in revenues, the Province a 21 per cent increase and although new and expanded responsibilities have been downloaded from the Province to the municipalities, we only received a 4 per cent increase in our revenues between 1998 and 2001. The gap between meeting our needs with available resources has been recognized as worsening and unsustainable. Municipalities need new funding opportunities which are reliable, and predictable; money that grows with the population and is not so constrained with conditions that it cannot be used to meet the needs of our aging and diverse population. To confirm our role and responsibilities in the management of funding and service provision at the local level, we must have a contract with other orders of government: ‘The New Deal’.

Although York Region’s population has grown in number and diversity, we continue to be underfunded in transportation, healthcare, environmental protection and childrens’ and seniors’ services. York Region’s Human Services Planning Coalition is attempting to coordinate and streamline service providers across the entire community so that we can provide timely, efficient, and economic service to our residents. Richmond Hill has grown up. It is time for us to provide a full range of services to our own community.

Brenda