Ms. Lisa MacLeod (Nepean–Carleton): It’s a pleasure to stand in support of my colleague and friend the member for Oxford and to provide a fact check for my Liberal colleague from Peterborough. The municipal-provincial-federal fiscal imbalance is something that our party and our party leader, John Tory, have sought to correct for some time. We feel—and quite rightly, I might add—that only once the interdependent relationships are fully assessed can we truly understand who does what and who should be paying for what.

I might add at this time that we on this side were terribly flattered when the other side took a page from Mr. Tory’s book and announced at the recent AMO convention the service delivery review for municipalities. The only problem, of course is that their imitation was just that: a cheap knockoff of the real thing. Indeed, if the Liberals were serious about fixing municipal-provincial-fiscal imbalance and undertaking a thorough and effective municipal review and if they really wanted to seek the truth, then I venture to suggest they would not have postponed the conclusion of their study and subsequent release of the results until after the next provincial election, and they most certainly would not have rushed in at the last minute with a quick fix at AMO, announcing what I consider far less of a commitment than the original John Tory proposal. So you’ll find it as no surprise that our municipal affairs and housing critic, the member for Oxford, would today try to give Ontarians the genuine article, not the McGuinty knockoff.

My good friend from Oxford is fully aware that this Liberal government will say anything and they will do anything just to get and stay elected. In fact, the McGuinty Liberals only promised to undertake this municipality review because they needed a promise that they couldn’t break right away. Of course, it wasn’t even initially their promise. It’s more of a borrowed idea, one that they dumbed down to suit their style of government. You see, this is a government that has made promises that it knew it couldn’t keep or promises that this government never intended to keep when it was elected in 2003. With this municipal review, I can only conclude the Liberals are delaying a promise—a promise, might I remind you, that only came at the 11th hour at AMO and a promise that they do not care is kept, entirely for electoral gains.

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. But this review’s results have been delayed. It was announced at the 11th hour and there are absolutely no guarantees that the province will deliver on any of the potential recommendations, including the possibility of uploading services, which—have you ever seen a group on the other side complain like the crowd across from me, on all of the downloading of previous administers, yet for three years have done nothing but blame, point fingers and hide their heads in the sand when it comes time for them to act. In fact, this is a group that, when they sat in opposition, was proud to link themselves with the dons of the download, John Chrétien and Paul Martin, at every tea party, barbecue and picnic they could find just for a cozy photo op. They never said a word when federal health and social transfers were virtually cut off by the federal Liberals, leaving previous administrations to come up with substantial sums of money from elsewhere. This Liberal Party, like its federal counterpart, aided and abetted the 1994 hack and slash to our health and social transfers right across Canada, including in this province of Ontario.

This Liberal Party, like its federal counterparts, aided and abetted the 1994 hack and slash to our health and social transfers right across Canada, including in this province of Ontario. There was not one complaint from those on the other side who watched federal health care funding drop from 50 cents on the dollar in 1993 to the Chrétien-Martin all-time low of 11 cents on the dollar, in favour of a billion-dollar sponsorship scandal right out of Montreal; no sir, not one complaint from the members opposite.

Some over there were actually the architects of the biggest downloads to provinces in Canada’s history. Did they say a word to defend our province and our municipalities? No, they supported the Chrétien-Martin balanced budgets on the backs of this province. This is a shell game. Now that there a federal Conservative government in Ottawa, they have miraculously been converted to defenders of our province and our municipalities. But we’re fortunate: For all of this mishandling of the municipal-federal-fiscal balance by Liberals and their backroom insiders at all levels of government, there is at least a Conservative government in Ottawa and a Conservative opposition in Toronto prepared to get things done and right the Liberal wrongs of the past.

This Liberal government does not care about results. This Liberal government does not want to act, because then they won’t be able to blame anyone anymore. Simply put, this is yet another broken promise waiting to happen by this tired old lazy Liberal government.

In that vein, I believe it’s highly responsible for my colleague the member from Oxford to put this motion forward. He knows the provincial-municipal fiscal and service delivery review does not need to be drawn out; it should occur more expeditiously. He knows that there is a difference between something saying to get elected and being a responsible politician. He has served our province well. The member from Oxford was a successful municipal politician before he joined a Progressive Conservative government that not only knew what a commitment was, but just for you folks on the other side, he also knew how to keep a commitment.

Yes, sir, this promise-keeper right here has decided today to hold a group of promise-breakers to account. He knows that we need a municipal-provincial fiscal balance review to take place. He agrees with John Tory that the taxpayers and municipal councils across Ontario need this review to take place, and they need it to take place today. He knows that Ontarians deserve this review to be reported on before the next election, so results can start to happen. It is my view that only our leader, John Tory, has a fundamental grasp of what Ontario municipalities actually need.

I might add at this time that even the minister’s own parliamentary assistant agrees. After all, he wasn’t too long hopping in the photo ops endorsing Mr. Tory and his municipal policies in the 2003 municipal election campaign. But I guess, in keeping with the theme, do anything and say anything to get elected, it might have been the best opportunity for that assistant to get elected.

John Tory is the only party leader willing to deliver results today, not when the best photo op—or worse, the most problematic complaints—will take place. I support Mr. Hardeman’s motion today because he gets it right. As the leading voice in this House on matters pertaining to municipal issues, Mr. Hardeman knows the difference between a Liberal and Conservative, and a promise and a follow-through. He knows that the Liberals are three years too late and 18 months too long on this municipal review.

Today I’d encourage my colleagues to join Mr. Hardeman and the PC caucus and support this resolution so municipalities across our great province can deliver the best possible services, so our taxpayers receive the best possible value for money and so all of Ontario can have a timely who-does-what report that benefits us all.