Big City Mayors watching throne speech for funding commitments
Posted Jun 3, 2011 06:18:46 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Thousands of municipal politicians will be in Halifax for the weekend.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ annual expo kicks off today in tandem with the Big City Mayor’s conference, which launched Thursday with a clear message for the Harper government.
The mayors want to see a renewal of the $1.9 billion in core federal-municipal investments, which expire in 2014.
Caucus chair and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson says he’ll be watching today’s throne speech very closely – but says he’s confident the federal government will want to work together.
“We base our confidence on the strength of the partnership over these last several years,” he said. “We’ve had an extraordinarily succesful partnership implementing the stimulus program, putting people to work in our cities and much-needed improvements in infrastructure.”
Robertson says it’s in the federal government’s best interest to support the big cities, saying a stronger partnership between governments means a stronger economy and safer streets.
“Cities are Canada’s economic drivers,” he said. “To compete in the tough global economy, Canada needs cities with the transportation, the housing and the essential services to support workers, businesses and families.”
The mayors say their top priorities are money for policing, housing and infrastructure.
HRM Mayor Peter Kelly says he fully supports the message of the caucus and says he’ll be listening to see if today’s throne speech hints at a change in tone from the new majority government.
“That will set the tone as to how we’re going to move forward, and certainly the budget will also be reflective of that tone, so we’ll be watching very closely,” he said.
Kelly says he’s pleased to be host mayor for the both conferences this weekend and looks forward to the economic spinoffs.
“From what we understand, it’s approximately two million dollars in direct spinoff and there’ll be some indirect spinoffs as well, it depends how much they want to spend,” he said.
