| MACLEOD SUPPORTS SUCCESSFUL MOTION TO SPEED UP MUNICIPAL SERVICE REVIEW |
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| Sunday, 01 October 2006 19:00 |
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Condemns Liberal disregard for property taxpayers QUEEN’S PARK – Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod today spoke in the Ontario Legislature in support of a motion to expedite a full review of funding for municipal services in order to prevent unsustainable property tax hikes or reductions in service. “The Municipal-Provincial-Federal fiscal balance is something that our Party and our Party Leader, John Tory, has sought to correct for some time,” said MacLeod. “If the Liberals were serious about undertaking a thorough and effective municipal review, they would not have postponed the conclusion of their study, and subsequently the release of the results, until after the next provincial election. If they intended to keep this promise, the 18 month review would have been far shorter, announced much earlier and would have come with some guarantees.” According to Oxford MPP Ernie Hardeman, who tabled the motion, there is an increasing gap between the cost of services municipalities have to deliver and the funding that municipalities receive from the province. That gap is being passed on to taxpayers through increased property taxes and reduced services. “This Liberal government will say anything and they will do anything just to get and stay elected,” said MacLeod. “This is a government that has made promises that it knew it couldn’t keep or promises that this government never intended to keep.” MacLeod attacked the McGuinty Liberals for their silence when transfers to the provinces were being cut by the previous federal government. “They never said a word when federal health and social transfers were virtually cut off by the federal Liberals,” said MacLeod. “This Liberal Party, like its federal counterparts, aided and abetted the 1994 hack and slash to our health and social transfers. Federal healthcare funding dropped from 50 cents on the dollar in 1993 to the Chretien-Martin all-time low of 11 cents on the dollar.” - 30 - For more information: Stephen Gilman, Executive Assistant Phone: 613-823-2116 Cell: 613-297-2051 |