Muted

Kathleen Wynne said no. With an election looming in June, the Ontario premier shot down the proposal made by the gathered municipal leaders last week in Ottawa. They had come to ask her to increase the harmonized sales tax (HST) by one per cent to help fund the rehabilitation of crumbling municipal infrastructure from Kenora to Cornwall.

According to Lynne Dollin, chair of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), their proposal, hammered out over several months, was the best, most progressive means to begin tackling a multi-billion dollar problem getting worse and more expensive with every passing year.

But Wynne said no.

“It’s exactly the opposite direction from what we’re trying to do right now,” Wynne told the disappointed mayors, wardens and other municipal officials.

Wynne’s political instincts tell her that voters will punish her party more for an increase in taxes than alleviating the infrastructure burden the province downloaded nearly two decades ago onto municipalities ill-prepared and utterly lacking the tax base or borrowing capacity to fix them.

Wynne knows the challenges faced by these municipalities. She likely understands, too, a hike in the sales tax dedicated to this task is the best, perhaps only, remedy short of taking back the roads and bridges the province dumped on these communities. But this is politics—cynical and calculating. Politicians like Wynne don’t do or say what they think is right—they say what they believe will get them re-elected.

Through this, admittedly coloured lens, Wynne’s response is understandable.

Less easy to comprehend is Mayor Robert Quaiff’s sunny appraisal of the meeting. Remember that Quaiff is currently chair of the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus (EOWC), a lobby group of mostly rural elected officials who restated, earlier this year, their number one priority is fixing the decaying infrastructure plaguing their communities.

But in a statement issued on his return to the County, Quaiff was positively glowing in his assessment of the talks.

“I am pleased by the productive discussions we had with members of the provincial government,” said Quaiff in the release. “Our delegation shared The County’s perspective on a number of issues. In turn, our delegation made new connections and strengthened existing relationships that will undoubtedly help us advance our priorities in the future.”

No mention of the stiff arm from the premier. No hint of frustration that a workable proposal, unanimously endorsed by 444 municipalities, was snuffed out before it was allowed to gasp its first breath.

Instead Mayor Quaiff talked about “productive discussions”, “shared perspectives”, and “new connections” without ever explaining how any of these fine interactions—he is always keen to tell any and all about his important meetings—has moved the dial on infrastructure in any discernable way.

He is relying, it seems, on faith that relationships— no matter how fleeting or how low down the rung they might be—will “undoubtedly help us advance our priorities.”

What? How?

County residents will be forgiven for retaining some doubt that the gravy train is about to stop in Picton merely because Mayor Quaiff has had some meetings.

Perhaps a more appropriate response to the premier’s rejection of AMO’s proposal to fund infrastructure renewal would have been for Mayor Quaiff to express his deep disappointment at Wynne’s decision and commit to continuing to press this proposal in the forum of public opinion. He might have promised to make the province’s abdication of its responsibility to this looming crisis an election issue. He could have marshalled the resources of AMO’s municipalities to hammer home this argument and bring it to Ontario’s newspapers, television and social media in advance of the June provincial election. If not as mayor of the County, then for the other municipalities he represents. He is, after all, the chair of the Eastern Ontario’s Wardens’ Caucus—does he not have an obligation to do this?

There is nothing wrong with civil and cordial relationships with provincial officials, but that and $2.25 will get you a cup of coffee at Miss Lily’s. In and of themselves, “conversations” with ministers and their aides, aren’t going to solve the problem our infrastructure deficit. The scale is simply too big. Too widespread. Too intractable.

No amount of tinkering or election-time handouts will make a perceptible dent in reversing the relentless decline of Ontario’s municipal infrastructure. What is needed is a profound, long-term solution—a solution like adding a point to the HST and dedicating those funds to the rebuild.

So why isn’t Mayor Quaiff saying this?

rick@wellingtontimes.ca