Statement: Burlington Mayor responds to Letter from Burlington MPP Jane McKenna

Late last Thursday afternoon (April 18) before the long weekend, Burlington MPP Jane McKenna sent a letter to my office, expressing her concerns with my April 15th statement about the recent provincial budget. She also shared her letter with the Burlington Post/InsideHalton.com where it appeared in a story on April 20. Having personally received her letter yesterday morning, I then had the opportunity to review it and respond.The following response was sent to her yesterday (April 23):Dear Ms. McKenna, M.P.P., Much discussion is being had in the public domain since the release of the Provincial Budget earlier this month. As a result of the many cuts that were announced by Premier Doug Ford and his government, citizens and communities continue to voice their concerns over the impact they will see and feel to services they count on and priorities they value. From increasing classroom sizes to slashing funding for Indigenous affairs to changes in funding for families dealing with autism, there are many issues of concern. As Mayor of Burlington, I am focused on the list of things that directly impact our municipal bottom line and represent a downloading of costs to our tax payers. Issues of particular concern to our city involve cuts of over $300K to the Conservation Authority that will hurt flood mitigation strategies and impact public safety, recent Province-wide public health funding cuts, which were only disclosed late last week and whose impact (both financial and practical) to our residents is yet to be clarified, and the cancelled promise of incremental gas-tax funding increases, which would have helped fund essential transit improvements in Burlington and beyond. As I said in a previous statement, I am particularly disappointed in the government’s decision to cancel the incremental increases in Provincial gas-tax funding over the next 10 years – a promise that was made by the Progressive Conservative party during the election campaign as reported in a recent article by the CBC. The related numbers you referenced in your letter are incorrect. I would welcome a discussion with you, myself, and Joan Ford, our Director of Finance, who can furnish you with the correct numbers. For example, your letter referenced transit ridership data from 2013-2015, and we have already seen increased ridership from 2016-2018 that add new context to this issue. The gas tax increase from 2% to 2.5% would be enough to fund one additional bus purchase each and every year: a substantial impact to our city. While the Council of the City of Burlington acts prudently and does not budget for any upper-level government transfers promised during election campaigns, federal or provincial, we do get them consistently every year and they amount to millions of critical dollars (originally collected from our own tax payers) being delivered back to us so that we can reinvest in our city’s infrastructure and services. Over the past week, I have spoken with Mayors in neighboring municipalities who share our concerns and we are now discussing a joint response. Health, the environment, transit and infrastructure are not the places to be making cuts. Ultimately, these decisions will download millions in costs to municipalities and their tax payers in order to maintain the services they’ve come to count on. Once again, I would welcome a further discussion on these issues in person with myself and my team anytime. Sincerely, Mayor Marianne Meed Ward City of Burlington