| CITY OF OTTAWA AND MAYOR AGREE WITH MACLEOD: OTTAWA CONTINUALLY SHORT-CHANGED BY MCGUINTY LIBERALS |
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| Monday, 21 May 2007 19:00 |
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Watson's defense of Ottawa imbalance rooted more in rhetoric than dedicated budget lines and reality NEPEAN-CARLETON, May 22, 2007 – Mayor Larry O'Brien said today on CFRA that Ottawa-West Nepean MPP and Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson's numbers do not stand up and that Ottawa has continually been short-changed by the McGuinty Liberals on a per-household basis when compared to Toronto. Nepean-Carleton MPP and vocal defender of Ottawa, Lisa MacLeod, stated that she has been warning about this for months, especially during the tabling of the Provincial budget. "The people of Ottawa now have a report where people can make a direct comparison of what Ottawa gets from McGuinty and what vote rich Toronto gets from McGuinty,” said MacLeod. “This report proves we are getting short changed year after year." MacLeod, citing the report to City Council, said that it was clear on a basic comparison of a per-household basis that the city of Ottawa gets far less from the provincial government than Toronto. She also cited the fact that the Minister of Health Promotion, Jim Watson's defense of the government's inaction to address the Ottawa imbalance was rooted in rhetoric. "Watson's number of 60 million for Ottawa in the provincial budget is a best case scenario number with no dedicated budget lines to show intent for government spending. It is essentially contingency funding which may or may not happen." She added, "The $200 million the City of Ottawa has been promised provincially for mass transit is a drop in the bucket compared to the $2 billion that the GTA got for its transit initiatives." MacLeod has also been critical of the McGuinty government's unwillingness to provide infrastructure funding for rural areas of the City of Ottawa. With gasoline prices hovering well above a dollar a litre, MacLeod has called on the McGuinty government to stop excluding small town and rural Ontario from their fair share of gas tax revenues. “For every litre of gas Ontarians buy, they pay 14.7 cents in Provincial tax. That amounts to $7.35 in provincial gas tax on a 50-litre fill up,” said MacLeod. The McGuinty government has given cities a portion of the gas tax for public transit, but rural communities like Osgoode, Metcalfe and North Gower that need funding for roads and bridges are left out in the cold.” MacLeod also pointed out that rural communities within the City of Ottawa do not qualify for the Canada-Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund (COMRIF), which provides funding for rural roads, bridges, water lines and sewers. "The McGuinty government needs to table its so-called 'who does what' report on the provincial-municipal imbalance now,” said MacLeod, “rather than after the next provincial election." Since being elected MacLeod has also been a frequent critic of the McGuinty government's short-changing of Ottawa in areas of government spending, including health care waiting times for pediatric surgery, and knee and hip replacement. "The McGuinty government is either asleep at the switch or just does not get it. We need to start to think outside the box when dealing with Ontario's second largest city and Canada's capital." - 30 - For more information: Stephen Gilman, Executive Assistant Queen's Park: 416-325-6351 Nepean-Carleton: 613-823-2116 Cell: 613-297-2051 Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |