Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 14, 2005, Winnipeg, Manitoba The View a11associate editor from newest John Sullivan 697-7293 Winnipeg free press a forum for ideas and opinion thursday april14, 2005 Urban Agenda where Are the provinces by Roger Gibbins and Casey Vander Ploeg c canadians have witnessed an energetic debate Over the past several years on the Urban Agenda reflecting the growing Impact of Urban regions on the country a eco nomic and social Prosperity. Much of this debate has centred on the role that the Federal government should play in Urban affairs. Well the first shoe finally dropped when last months Federal budget committed Ottawa to Transfer a portion of the Federal fuel tax to provincial governments and through them to municipalities. Thus the increasing Federal inter est in the Urban Agenda has finally taken con Crete financial form. Municipalities will get $600 million in 2005/06, and by 2009/10 will receive $1 billion annually ? barring some change in government or its Priori ties. Assuming that funds Are distributed equally based on population this will mean $22.1 million for All municipalities in Manitoba for the Forth coming budget year. By 2010, Winnipeg alone should be receiving an additional $20.4 million annually. This infusion of Federal funding is significant but it is not massive ? the amounts Are not enough to fully address municipal infrastructure deficits. For example in 2003 the Canada West foundation estimated that Winnipeg had deferred about $188 million in needed infrastructure upgrades. The Federal Revenue sharing Deal would Only solve about 11 per cent of that Short fall when fully implemented by 2010. Still every Little bit helps. Kudos for the Martin governments fuel tax Initia Tive should go to Western Canadas big City mayors who were its most vigorous kudos for the advocates. Martin however we re All still governments waiting for the second shoe to drop in the Urban debate. Fuel tax although the Federal move is initiative to be applauded it also draws attention to the should go to increasingly curious Western absence of provincial gov Canadas Ern ments from the National debate Over cities and an big Cit Urban Agenda. Mayors who Given that provinces Are much larger players than were its Ottawa on the municipal most stage and will remain so vigorous their very modest role to Date is both puzzling and advocates troubling. Now of course provincial governments have not been off stage entirely. Last fall for example the Alberta government committed $3.3 billion to municipal infrastructure funding Over five years which is not a trivial amount in any context. Yet there is still a fear that the provinces Are falling into a certain complacency that confronts Many policy Fields in Canada. In areas such As health care and aboriginal policy to take but two examples the tendency has been to put More and More Money into existing policy structures rather than to embrace Struc Tural Reform. In Many cases however the exist ing policy structures simply cannot deliver satisfactory results ? no matter How much Money is pumped in. More Money alone simply does not deliver the policy outcomes that canadians expect and this is the situation in which we find ourselves when it comes to the infrastructure needs of municipalities. In foundations for Prosperity a report issued last fall the Canada West foundation recommended that the Alberta government ? and by Extension All provinces ? provide municipal governments with a broader Range of tax tools to supplement property tax Revenue and reduce Reliance on that tax base. The foundation also recommended that a legis lated framework for Revenue sharing with municipal governments be introduced perhaps by dedicating a portion of the Revenue Stream from provincial personal income taxes to municipalities. At Issue then is the need for a strategic Frame work upon which can be built a new relationship Between municipal and provincial governments. Just As the Federal government is trying to find a new role in Urban affairs so too do we need to explore creative options at the provincial level. And we need to think about More than just the need for More Money. Above All any new policy framework must be sustainable going Well beyond erratic infusions of provincial funding no matter How generous those infusions might be. In addition it has to address the unique role and position of Large Urban regions whether that be the Winnipeg or the Vancouver of the world. A one size fits All policy framework that is applied to communities of All sizes from Winnipeg to Brandon will not be successful. It should also be stressed that this is not a pitch to replace local taxes with provincial Money or indeed with Federal Money. If we Are going to Cre ate fiscally sustainable and High Quality communities local taxpayers Are also going to have to step up to the plate something that has not really been happening As of late. The fact is that municipal property taxes As a proportion of personal disposable income have been falling for Many cities in Western Canada. For example property taxes for an average win nip Egger in the Early 1960s amounted to about 4.5 per cent of personal disposable income com pared to less than 3.5 per cent today. In Calgary municipal property taxes were 4.0 per cent of personal disposable income in 1960, but Are Only 2.7 per cent today. The reductions appear Small but consider this if Winnipeg were collecting property taxes today at the same percentage of personal disposable income averaged Over the 1960-2003 period the City would have collected an additional $80 Mil lion in 2003 alone. Money is part of the solution Here but its not the entire answer. This is a time for All of us to think big and go beyond simply pumping More Money into outdated policy and fiscal Frame works. Its time to seize the Opportunity of Ottawa a policy Lead and let the provincial shoe drop. Roger Gibbins is president and ceo and Casey Vander Ploeg is senior policy analyst at the Canada West foundation. Canary a song is classic Chr Etien details but the pattern was already Well Carle the former director of operations a major operation could take place with was made available to Canad known especially when previous wit w Hen Jean Brault a testimony for prime minister Chr Tien that the out these dedicated civil servants know ans outside the blog sphere Nesses denied doing anything wrong or financing of a scam was essentially a ing what was going on. Many Media pundits indicated their suffered temporary but debilitating fits Money laundering scheme. How could the secretaries tasked with Shock and Awe at the scale of the Cor of amnesia. Previous witnesses had provided hints removing Post it stickers filled with eruption. Like the watergate hearings in Amer and occasional allegations about the Sev political instructions from contracts in much of this response however was Ica a generation ago with which the eral ways in which the Money was Laun the files of former Public works minis disingenuous hypocrisy ? the homage Gomery inquiry is quite properly being dered. The most common was the Ter Alphonso Gagliano not have known that vice pays to virtue As the great compared the bar is not set at the straightforward Kickback to the Liberal that they were destroying evidence aphorism la height appropriate for a criminal trial party usually on the order of 10 per cent. Does anyone believe that the Bureau Roche Foucault where reasonable doubt is enough to accordingly if you got a million Dollar crafts entertained at the corel Centre in once said. Partly enable the accused to escape punish advertising contract the expectation Ottawa by an and firm to which they it expressed a col ment and responsibility. Rather was that the Liberal party would see could award contracts were not being elective regret that because these Are Clever men and not about $100,000, one Way or another ? bribed the Media were so yet on trial they Are judged in terms untraceable Cash donations free help behind these recent contingencies Are supine that no one of something like plausible Credi Bili during an election Campaign pseudo the Long standing factors that have had the courage to to. Canadians Are being asked to adopt jobs at the and company for friends and enabled the Liberal party and its Dedi defy such an the perspective of a foreign intelligence relatives of highly placed liberals so rated servants to Rule almost endlessly obnoxious muzzle analyst not a jury member does the they could work full time on the elec the growth of Central agencies that to free speech. Story make sense Are the sources Tion. Have subverted both parliament and fed where Media credible whom do you believe Jean my personal Favourite is the great Golf realism too much tax Money collected Surprise at the Chr Tien or Jean Brault scam. Here an and firm would Purchase and spent by Ottawa and the special Liberal achieve this is Why the details revealed by a foursome at a Liberal fundraising Golf place of Quebec in the country. Ment was genuine one must conclude Brault matter. Even though it sounds like tournament at a going rate of about the liberals have simply reaped the that those experiencing it had been pay an episode from the sopranos the con $15,000invite four of its clients to play rewards that one party states typically ing attention neither to the leadership Cern Brault had that a conversation was and pay in their clients names. Thus the gain including the loyalty of characters style afforded by Jean a Boss Chr being taped or the Story of the Cash filled name of the and company would never such As Jean Brault ? at least so Long As Tien nor to months of testimony Given envelope being scooped up when he appear on a list of Liberal supporters. The Money rolled in and the Bosses previously before the Gomery commis excused himself to go to the bathroom much Ink has also been spilled to thought they could get away with it. Bles were entirely intramural. Theirs is Sion. Add rather than detract from his Street argue that such nefarious goings on cast a shared and generations old Accuu the fact is that while Brault swords cred. That he fingered members of both a pall Over the honesty and hard work Barry Cooper is professor of political Sci lated culture. Were new the music he Sang ? and he the Martin and Chr Tien wings of the lib of the thousands of dedicated civil ser ence at the University of Calgary and moreover Brault a testimony con Sang like a Canary ? was familiar. True eral party As being complicit confirms a vants in Ottawa. This is nonsense upon director of the Alberta policy research firmed the earlier admission of Jean he provided novel and almost salacious common sense notion that their Squab stilts. It is simply not credible that such Centre at the Fraser Institute in Calgary. Winnipeg free press editorial Board members Are Terence Moore Gerald flood Catherine Mitchell Tom Oleson cartoonist Dale Cummings submissions to the View from the West Are Welcome. Contact associate editor John Sullivan 204 697-7293 / ;