Wynne not interested in raising taxes to pay for infrastructure
Wynne says HST hike would “fly in the face” of her efforts to ease pocketbook pressures.

TheStar.com
Rob Ferguson
Aug. 15, 2017

Raising the HST to help municipalities pay for road, arena and other infrastructure improvements would “fly in the face” of her efforts to ease pocketbook pressures on Ontarians, Premier Kathleen Wynne says.

She told local councillors from across the province at the annual convention of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario that she was surprised by the group’s call for a one-per-cent HST hike to raise $2.5 billion.

“I have not heard that discussion from mayors,” she said at the convention in Ottawa on Tuesday, a day after AMO president Lynn Dillon issued the challenge.

Wynne’s Liberal government, which is up for re-election next June 7, cut electricity bills 25 per cent this year after skyrocketing hydro prices infuriated consumers and fuelled attacks by opposition parties.

The premier said AMO’s push to raise the HST to 14 per cent from 13 would mean “constituents paying more taxes.”

“That’s why it’s not something that we’re going to look at.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown and his NDP counterpart, Andrea Horwath, also said “no” to the association’s HST request Tuesday, preferring other ways to ease financial pressures on municipalities.

Wynne suggested a less drastic solution to find ways to fund local projects that are falling through the cracks in programs from the province.

“Let’s figure out what’s the best way for them to be paid for,” Wynne said. “There are billions of dollars that are flowing into municipalities right now. Let’s figure out what the gaps are.”

Solutions could include Ontario taking financial responsibility for some local roads that are more suited to being under provincial control and finding ways to help small municipalities to pay for arena and other recreational facilities, she said.

“In small municipalities it is very, very difficult to raise those funds,” Wynne acknowledged.

Although AMO’s board of directors unanimously supported the push for a one-per-cent rise in the HST to create a “local share,” the premier pointed out that there isn’t unanimous support at the convention.

“This room was divided; not everyone in the room believes that increasing the HST is the way to go.”

Dissenters included Deputy Mayor James Leduc of Bradford West-Gwillimbury and Timmins Mayor Steve Black.

“It’s still taxes,” Black said at a microphone on the convention floor as Wynne took questions from the audience.

“I don’t support that, either. I think there’s better ways,” Leduc told the crowd.

Brown told AMO delegates that a PC government would bring in reforms to a system called “joint and several liability” that have some municipalities closing recreational facilities because of high insurance premiums and fears of expensive lawsuits.

Orangeville, for example, has banned tobogganing on Murray’s Mountain. Under the concept of joint and several liability, a defendant who is only partially at fault may have to pay an entire damage settlement if other defendants don’t have the ability to pay.

That often leaves municipalities on the hook, said Brown, who pledged to find a way to protect local governments from “unfair and unaffordable settlements” while ensuring victims are “fairly compensated.”

Brown did not specify how this would be achieved but said he would consult widely on better solutions.

For the NDP, Horwath said her party, if elected, would “shoulder its fair share” of municipal programs for child care, transit and social housing.