AMO 2024: Stiles and Crombie offer their takes on a municipal 'new deal' as Ford steers clear

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.

Speaking to a room full of representatives from municipalities across Ontario anxious for relief from broken budgets and massive social issues, Premier Doug Ford announced a tool for mapping commercial real estate.

"I was fiddling around with it on the weekend, and I'll tell you, this one's slick," he told the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa on Monday. "It's gonna work really, really well."

Cities and towns will be able to upload information about commercial and industrial properties through the "Partner Portal," which Ford called "a powerful resource" for attracting investment. It appears to be an updated version of the Sites Ontario tool.

Ford added that a previously announced fund to help build local rec centres is now open.

Much of his speech was spent on his government's work on housing and infrastructure, calling the Building Faster Fund a "huge, huge success" despite most municipalities struggling to hit their housing targets. 

He got applause for noting that he hasn't raised taxes.  

"We've reduced taxes of $8 billion each and every single year," he said.

And pockets of the crowd lit up as he detailed the highway projects his government is working on, including Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass, Highway 7 and widening Highway 3.

But Ford didn't touch the number 1 ask of many communities and perhaps the theme of AMO: cities and towns are broke. 

Opposition leaders, however, were more than happy to talk about it. While the crowd was mostly muted for the premier, the NDP, Liberal and Green leaders nailed their applause lines. 

All three promised a "new deal" with more, stable funding for municipalities. But while Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie is looking to negotiate the details, NDP Leader Marit Stiles came with a plan. 

Stiles promised her government would "re-upload the financial responsibility for housing, shelters and homelessness prevention" and would "at least double the supply of community housing, non-profits and co-ops."

She said she would also designate one ministry for homelessness, mental health and addictions, as big city mayors recently called for. 

"Sound familiar?" she asked the crowd.

A Stiles government would pay for half the operating cost of local transit, 90 per cent of ambulance services and 75 per cent of local public health units, she said.

Currently, transit funding varies by municipality. Ontario already committed last year to reverting to 75 per cent of public health funding after cutting it in 2019. And it kicks in 50 per cent for ambulance operations.

Stiles said she'd upload provincial-owned controlled access highways, and for highways funded through the “Connecting Link” program.

"Because you know what, folks, if it’s good for Toronto, it’s good enough for all of us, right?" she said.

"And can I just say, I heard the premier come in here and boast about reducing taxes by $8 billion. But like, can we all just agree, that's being downloaded onto you!" she said to applause.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie promised a new deal, with the specifics to be hammered out in negotiations. 

"And I was a big city mayor. I understand that depending on the size of city, or whether you're a small town, rural community, large community, your ask could be different," she told reporters after her speech. "Maybe there's one tool that's right for you that others would not favour."

Potential solutions could include uploading provincial responsibilities like health care, giving municipalities 1 per cent of GST, or tinkering with the land transfer tax or vehicle registration tax, she said.

Stiles said there's been enough talk.

"I think municipalities have been very clear for a long time about what they need. And we listened to delegation after delegation for years now, saying what they need is for government to reverse course on what has been 30 years of downloading by provincial governments," she said.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said his new deal would also upload "highway, housing and shelter costs" and split transit funding 50/50. 

"And I think as we look at the fiscal framework review, it can't be prescriptive, all coming from me. It's got to also be coming from municipalities," he told reporters afterward.

AMO President Colin Best, in his speech, said he was "disappointed" that the government hasn't taken on his organization's proposed review of who pays for what.

All opposition parties have committed to it because "they know that the current arrangements are undermining the prosperity of your communities. They know that we are on an unsustainable path to decline if changes are not forthcoming," he said.

The opposition leaders also re-upped their support behind allowing councils to kick out members for harassment. Currently, the harshest penalty they can face is a suspension of pay for 90 days. 

Liberal MPP Stephen Blais' bill to do just that briefly appeared to have Tory support, until the government voted it down, worrying that the proposal to empower local integrity commissioners could open the door to political abuse.

In January, Housing Minister Paul Calandra stressed the need to make the bill "airtight." The government appears to have punted the issue to the fall at the earliest, as it reportedly awaits guidance from the integrity commissioner.