In letter to Chow, Freeland puts Toronto budget bailout on province’s shoulders | 24CA News
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow accused the federal authorities of finger pointing on Monday, as Canada’s deputy prime minister positioned the duty to assist town with its pandemic-ravaged funds on the province’s shoulders.
A two-page letter from Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to Chow in response to Toronto’s request for added assist provided no new promise of federal funding on Monday. Freeland, who can be the federal finance minister, mentioned the Ontario authorities has the constitutional duty and financial capability to assist Toronto.
“It is our firm expectation that they will do so,” Freeland wrote to Chow.
The letter is the newest improvement in an ongoing saga between the totally different ranges of presidency over methods to sort out Toronto’s pandemic-related funds shortfall.
Chow wrote in an announcement Monday that the province had signalled its willingness to associate with town.
“I remain hopeful that the federal government will join us as well, despite today’s finger-pointing,” she mentioned.
Chow inherited a virtually $1-billion funds shortfall, largely tied to decreased transit revenues and elevated shelter prices. Without extra assist, metropolis workers have estimated subsequent 12 months’s funds shortfall might be as much as $927 million.
Staff reviews point out Toronto may plug the opening on this 12 months’s funds by way of a COVID-19 backstop fund, drawn from its already depleted capital funds.
Freeland’s letter famous the federal authorities’s capability to offer assist had limits. She credited Ontario’s “excellent fiscal position” to the federal authorities’s emergency pandemic assist.
“Mayor Chow, our government has been _ and will continue to be _ a committed partner for the City of Toronto,” Freeland wrote within the letter.
“However, the ability of our federal government is not infinite _ and the emergency support we provided during the pandemic led directly to the excellent fiscal position that the Province of Ontario currently enjoys.”
The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario has projected a provincial funds surplus of $10.6 billion by the 2025-2026 fiscal 12 months, greater than the government-forecasted $4.4-billion surplus.
In response to the letter, Premier Doug Ford’s workplace deflected again to the federal authorities. An announcement from a spokesperson in his workplace didn’t point out new assist for Toronto’s funds shortfall, saying town’s request for added funding was directed on the federal authorities.
“We hope the federal government and Toronto can work together to find a solution,” the assertion learn.
Chow formally took workplace earlier this month, coming off a byelection marketing campaign the place she pledged to work with different main cities to get a brand new fiscal deal for municipalities.
Officials have lengthy mentioned Canada’s most populous metropolis deserves distinctive monetary consideration given the outsized function it performs in regional providers from transit to shelter and housing helps.
Chow welcomed the federal authorities’s dedication final week to offer $97 million to assist shelter asylum claimants in Toronto, however mentioned it was not sufficient to satisfy town’s wants given a rise in claimants and an already over-stretched shelter system.
She teamed up with Ford and issued a name for the federal authorities so as to add one other $26.7 million to this system providing rental housing stipends.
The mayor has indicated the brand new federal {dollars} can be used to assist open up round 250 shelter areas for asylum claimants in Toronto.
“Recently, when we worked together sheltering refugees, we saw some immediate short-term successes. That is the kind of continued partnership we need to deliver affordable housing, fast and reliable transit and good public services for the people of Toronto for years to come,” Chow mentioned.
Freeland’s letter famous final week’s announcement and mentioned the federal authorities had dedicated $1.86 billion to town this fiscal 12 months by way of varied applications, akin to funding for public transit, infrastructure and addictions applications, with that quantity projected to rise subsequent 12 months to $2.3 billion.
— With information from Nojoud Al Mallees
© 2023 The Canadian Press
