Ford government unveils revised cuts to funding for municipalities

Thestar.com
August 20, 2019
Rob Ferguson and Laurie Monsebraaten

Local taxpayers will feel the pinch of higher costs for new daycare spaces and public health programs under funding changes from Premier Doug Ford’s government, critics say, with Mayor John Tory warning of “significant” impacts on Toronto’s finances.

The province unveiled its revised plan Monday, just three months after backing down on retroactive and controversial cuts to public health, daycare and ambulance services in the face of stiff criticism from Tory and other leaders after municipal budgets were set for the year.

“We recognize our government moved quickly when we came into office,” Ford told about 2,000 delegates at the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa. “But we’ve listened to you.”

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath suggested Ford’s listening skills have not improved.

“This morning, Doug Ford confirmed that the countdown to devastating cuts is on,” she said in a statement. “He’s slashing things like public health and child care, things that keep families safe and healthy, and throwing the problems his cuts will create at the feet of municipal councils.”

The changes take effect in January, including a move first announced in the provincial government’s spring budget to make municipalities pay 20 per cent of the cost of new daycare spaces -- which had been fully funded by the province.

Carolyn Ferns with the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care said the change will be challenging for municipalities that agreed to expand child care in their communities on the understanding that Queen’s Park would pick up the full cost.

“It’s going to create a chill for any municipality thinking about expanding child care,” Ferns said. “If suddenly they can be on the hook for more of the cost -- and with all the other budget pressures they are facing under this government -- they are just not going to do it.”

For public health, the province will provide 70 per cent of funding with municipalities kicking in 30 per cent. Under retroactive cuts announced in the provincial budget, Toronto would have had to pay 50 per cent of its public health costs, taking a harder hit than any other municipality.

Ford also said ambulance funding will increase almost four per cent this year with another, unspecified increase in 2021.

While Tory said the changes -- particularly for public health -- are an “improvement” for Toronto from Ford’s initial plan, the mayor raised concerns about a cash hit to the city’s treasury as he pledged to work with the province to “identify efficiencies, without jeopardizing core services our residents expect.”

“We will be reviewing the full details of today’s proposal, particularly with regards to child care funding in Toronto, where based on information currently available, the city could still face significant impacts to its budget next year,” Tory added in a statement.

Toronto Board of Health chair Joe Cressy, a city councillor, was more blunt, calling the changes to public health funding “short-sighted” because the province has been funding between 75 and 100 per cent of the cost of public health programs.

“Premier Ford did the right thing by reversing those retroactive cuts and announcing a reset,” Cressy said in a statement.

“Today, rather than a reset, we received yet another unilateral announcement of harmful cuts, while details are still emerging, today’s announcement appears to cut all public health funding to 70 per cent.”

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau also slammed the changes as his Liberal party fights for re-election on Oct. 21.

“Conservative cuts leave municipalities with two choices: raise taxes or cut core services, with both options making life more expensive,” Morneau said in a statement.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner accused Ford of putting “the squeeze” on municipalities to ease the provincial deficit.

“We cannot play around with issues like vaccinations, food safety and disease control,” Schreiner said.

In introducing Ford to the gathering of mayors and councillors from across the province, AMO president Jamie McGarvey took aim at the province, saying that improving the financial sustainability of local governments cannot be achieved “with abrupt, unilateral changes, it will take more than simple belt tightening to make things better.

“Working together, we can avoid unnecessary turmoil,” McGarvey, the mayor of Parry Sound, added in a reference to the furor that resulted from the retroactive cuts in the provincial budget.

“If the goal is saving money, improving services for people, and showing greater respect for taxpayers, we wouldn’t start with public health or paramedic services.”

Toronto Councillor Mike Layton said forcing the city to pick up 20 per cent of the cost of new child care spaces approved since 2016 “will throw the city’s children’s services budget into chaos.”

“Who knows what will have to be cut at the end of the day?” he said.

As municipalities scramble to come up with the funding, Ferns predicted daycare programs will be squeezed and many may be forced to close.

“The Ford government can try to mask it as efficiencies or administrative cuts,” she said. “But for parents and for families, child care is going to get more expensive, and it’s going to be harder to find the services they need.”

Monday’s announcement does not address the potential loss of thousands of new child care spaces planned for schools over the next three years that are now no longer eligible for provincial operating funding.

According to an April 26 memo from the Ministry of Education to municipalities, the province will honour capital commitments to build the daycares only if cities and school boards promise to come up with the operating funds by Aug. 30.

Under the previous Liberal government’s plan to double the number of child care spaces for kids under age 4 by 2022, the province had promised to pay 100 per cent of operating costs.

In Toronto, 3,049 spaces in 51 centres are at risk. It would cost the city about $35 million annually to cover the cost of fee subsidies and other operating expenses for the spaces, according to a staff report.

City council has asked the province to delay the Aug. 30 deadline to at least Oct. 31, to give staff time to assess 2020 budget pressures and prioritize the 51 centres. Toronto has yet to receive a response, a city spokesperson said Monday.