Growth freeze?: funding for Halton services

NRU
June 7, 2017
By Dominik Matusik

Halton Region says it will not implement the amended Growth Plan unless serious provincial investments are made to support its growing population.

In particular, Halton is struggling to maintain service levels for public health initiatives and wants all-day GO service for Milton, as well it wants more money from development charges.

Halton regional chair Gary Carr told NRU that it is unacceptable that Halton taxpayers are funding growth when it’s the province that is requiring the growth in the first place.

“Unfortunately, we get rhetoric instead of results from this government and we need results,” Carr says.“I’ve said this to them very clearly: ‘We understand your financial position. If you can’t fund public health, if you can’t get us the changes to Development Charges then that’s fine, but don’t expect us to grow because it will only get worse’.”

The ongoing dispute is over a lack of provincial funding, both capital and operating, for public services that Carr says are critical to a growing population: namely public health and all-day GO train service to Milton. According to Carr the health funding gap is up to $9.7-million this year. Additionally, he says the province owes the region $14-million in development charges to cover the cost of growth.

While the province mandates that municipalities implement the Growth Plan, Carr says the Halton official plan permits the region to freeze growth if the province fails to implement a financial plan that is  acceptable to regional council. If the province attempts to force Halton to grow without additional funding, Carr says, it will have to answer to the voters.

“[The provincial government] can explain to the public why [it is] downloading the cost of growth... If [it] wants to go to the next election based on that... we’ll see what the people of Halton Region decide.”

If Halton continues to grow at its current pace and the province does not increase funding for public health, things are going to get very challenging, Halton Region acting health commissioner Matt Ruf told NRU.

“The province changed [its] funding formula a few years ago and Halton hasn’t seen an increase since [2015...That means that the pressure essentially goes onto the region in order to simply maintain public health programs [while] all the other costs continue to go up.”

Ruf says that it isn’t simply a matter of growth, but also of changing demographics.

“In Halton, we have Burlington which is a little bit of an older community and those people need different services than a place like Milton where we have a lot of young people and young families and newcomers to Canada and they need a different set of services. So Halton is, as is our mandate, really having to respond to all the needs in the community. It’s not just a question of absolute numbers, it’s also the mix of what is coming into Halton.”

Ruf also agrees with Carr that all-day GO service is a critical need and stresses its link to public health issues.

“We know the effects of traffic in terms of air pollution, stress on the individual... Certainly from a public health standpoint, increased options for people to get around and to get into the city are always beneficial and we would certainly welcome those improvements.”

The provincial government denies that it has been downloading costs onto Halton. In an email to NRU, a municipal affairs spokesperson detailed the transfers the province has made.

“In 2017, Halton Region and its area municipalities will benefit from over $26-million in combined municipal supports and benefit uploads... Halton Region and its area municipalities will also receive over $30.5-million in federal gas tax funding for 2017, and $5.9-million in gas tax funding from the province.”

While it did not specify a date when all-day GO service to Milton would begin, the email emphasized that the province has recently increased service along the Milton GO line.

Carr remains adamant. If the requested provincial funding does not come, in September he intends to seek support from regional mayors and councillors to freeze Halton Region’s growth.