NDP Demands New Funds for Municipalities

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Tom Mulcair stressed, in support of Canada’s municipalities, that in case the government does not fulfills the demands of municipalities, they will directly head towards an “infrastructure cliff.” Municipalities have asked for long-term, stable funding to repair crumbling roads, water and sewer systems, the

The NDP leader added that this requirement shall be addressed in the coming budget of 2013, as the current Building Canada Fund will expire than. The Building Canada Fund was launched in 2007 and drove an amount of $33 billion in municipal infrastructure projects. Now The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is asking the government of another 20-year plan, with an increment up to $2.5 billion annually. Furthermore, the federation desires that municipalities shall be allowed to spend federal money according to their own will, rather applying for funding for each project.

Mulcair openly supported the demands of federation overall, but he cleverly did not make any specific comment on the figure of amount, though he did promise that an NDP government will eliminate the one cent per litre of the existing gas tax to municipalities. He stated that “beyond that, we’re not making any undertaking with regard to that ask.”

Mulcair was addressing his speech to the federation on Thursday, when he said that “what we are talking about is the priority that the NDP would give to long-term, sustainable funding, predictable funding, partnering with the provinces and therefore with the municipalities, to make sure that we no longer have this crumbling infrastructure without the ability to take care of it.” He added “that’s the undertaking we can make realistically.”