Province to Hamilton: No more bailouts

[SteelTown]

Province to Hamilton: No more bailouts

October 23, 2008
Daniel Nolan

Hamilton’s cabinet minister says the city will not get any more provincial funding to offset its high social services costs.

Ted McMeekin made the comment yesterday on the day his government announced it was tightening up spending because of the impact the world economic crisis is having on its finances.

Ontario has provided the city with $75.6 million since 2004 to offset social service costs. It has come in the form of annual grants and began as $19.5 million in 2004. The city received $12 million this spring.

“We made it clear that was the last year for the grant,” McMeekin, Government Services minister, told The Spectator last night. “The city was told last year it was one time, last time funding.”

He said the social services issue will be tackled, however, with an announcement coming within the next few weeks. He wouldn’t say any more, other than to indicate it was related to the work of Children and Youth Services Minister Deb Matthews, who has been chairing a cabinet committee overseeing the Liberal’s promised poverty-reduction strategy.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger was taken aback when told of McMeekin’s comment. He said it was news to him and he said Hamilton was expecting the cash again for its next budget. Without it, he said, it will mean a 2 per cent increase to the budget, or about $12 million. City staff have already told council the preliminary tax increase is about 9 per cent.

“It started off as a one-time thing, but I think we’ve demonstrated to them that has been the shortfall as a result of the downloading of social services,” Eisenberger said. “I anticipate, and I expect, and we will continue to work on whatever our shortfall is this year, they will come through.”

A plus for the city is that planned public transit infrastructure programs still seem to have the green light.

“Our marching orders are to get on with implementation,” said Rob MacIsaac, chair of Metrolinx which is planning GTA-wide public transit initiatives including possible light rail lines in Hamilton. “That’s what the premier said. So until we receive any notice to the contrary, that’s what we’re doing. I think that infrastructure is going to be a huge economic stimulus so presumably that will be on the minds of decision makers.”

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, in a statement updating the state of Ontario’s finances, said the government will go into the hole $500 million and Ontario’s projected economic growth will be just 0.1 per cent, due to the faltering economy. This compares with a $600-million surplus and 1.1 per cent growth he announced in the budget last March.

Duncan told the legislature the government will also delay the hiring of 9,000 new nurses, delay $25 million in school repairs, slow down government spending and freeze transfer payments to municipalities, hospitals, schools and universities in 2009-2010 to cope with “these tough economic times.” He estimated the moves will save Ontario $100 million.

“Here, in Canada, Ontario and around the world it is not business as usual,” Duncan said. “We are confident our transfer partners will work with us.”
Both Duncan and McMeekin said the government had programs in place to offset an economic slowdown, such as a $30-billion infrastructure program to build roads and schools. They also noted $1.5 billion in business tax cuts.

Duncan could not, however, rule out future budget deficits.

Niagara West-Glanbrook Conservative MPP Tim Hudak, his party’s finance critic, ridiculed Duncan for saying Ontario would have a surplus earlier this year. “He had to admit it was all nonsense,” he said

[ryan_mcgreal]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

He said the social services issue will be tackled, however, with an announcement coming within the next few weeks. He wouldn’t say any more, other than to indicate it was related to the work of Children and Youth Services Minister Deb Matthews, who has been chairing a cabinet committee overseeing the Liberal’s promised poverty-reduction strategy.

Any chance the province is going to upload social services costs?

[SteelTown]

Funding fix in works: McMeekin
Deal to ease city's social services burden

October 24, 2008
Andrew Dreschel
The Hamilton Spectator

It looks like a permanent solution for Hamilton's chronic social service funding shortfall is on the way.

That's the message from MPP Ted McMeekin, Hamilton's cabinet minister in the McGuinty government.

McMeekin says he's confident an upcoming municipal-provincial deal on social service delivery "will address the historic shortfall" Hamilton has complained about for so long.

The minister of government and consumer services says he expects the deal will compensate for the loss of special multimillion-dollar grants that the province has provided Hamilton to offset its high social service costs.

McMeekin says he's "very optimistic that the pattern of Hamilton being made whole on social services" will continue as a result of the province uploading certain programs.

The agreement, which is expected to be announced shortly, stems from a review that began in 2006 involving the province, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and the City of Toronto.

They were studying the funding and delivery of social programs that were downloaded to cities in the 1990s by the former Mike Harris government.

McMeekin offered his predictions yesterday during an interview about his earlier comments that the annual grants the city has grown to rely on to ease its budget pressures have come to an end.

McMeekin stood by his statement that he warned city officials that the $12-million provincial grant it received last year was the final one.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger say he has no recollection of any such discussion. "I don't recall anyone saying, 'Here's your money, don't expect any next year.'"

Joe Rinaldo, finance director and acting city manager, backs up the mayor's version of events.

Rinaldo says the province did refer to last year's funding as "one time," but notes it has done that ever since it began giving the grants.

Interpretation and recollection aside, the important point is both McMeekin and Eisenberger agree their discussions have focused on finding a long-term solution.

"I do recall Ted McMeekin saying that it was his hope and belief that the municipal services review would sort out this issue once and for all," Eisenberger said.

The city, which has received about $75 million in special social service funding over the past five budgets, has been agitating for a permanent solution all along.

It's seen as a simple matter of fairness because Hamilton's poverty rate jockeys with Toronto's as the highest in the province, which puts extraordinary financial pressure on the city's social programs.

But while the province created a formula to ease Toronto's burden by pooling costs with neighbouring communities, Hamilton was left out in the cold -- until it began receiving the special grants under former mayor Larry Di Ianni.

Hamilton's sense of being ill done by was only worsened last year when the province began uploading the GTA pooling that benefited Toronto, but again failed to provide a long-term solution for Hamilton.

"My expectation is the service delivery review will correct that once and for all so we don't have to keep going back cap in hand," Eisenberger said.

If McMeekin's predictions and the mayor's expectations fail to materialize, the absence of a special grant would mean an extra 2 per cent increase in next year's budget.

As Councillor Tom Jackson warns, that could have "dire consequences" for taxpayers and city service levels.

Jackson says the McGuinty government, which has already seen the number of its MPPs here shrink from five to two since 2003, may not escape unscathed either, come the next election.

"I would like to think," Jackson said, "that they would like to consider that as well if they're looking to the future."

[SteelTown]

City expects social-services funding announcement

October 28, 2008
The Hamilton Spectator

Hamilton hopes to hear Friday that the province will take back responsibility for services that left the city short $12 million in 2008.

The gap was filled by a provincial grant, but Government Services Minister Ted McMeekin said last week that Hamilton wouldn’t get special funding for social services again.

City officials expect the issue will be addressed in the report of a Provincial-Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review, begun in 2006.

Treasurer and acting city manager Joe Rinaldo told a budget steering committee meeting today that, “We will get an announcement this week on funding.”

Mayor Fred Eisenberger said, “The expectation is Friday.”

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

City expects social-services funding announcement

October 28, 2008
The Hamilton Spectator

Hamilton hopes to hear Friday that the province will take back responsibility for services that left the city short $12 million in 2008.

The gap was filled by a provincial grant, but Government Services Minister Ted McMeekin said last week that Hamilton wouldn’t get special funding for social services again.

City officials expect the issue will be addressed in the report of a Provincial-Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review, begun in 2006.

Treasurer and acting city manager Joe Rinaldo told a budget steering committee meeting today that, “We will get an announcement this week on funding.”

Mayor Fred Eisenberger said, “The expectation is Friday.”

Friday on Halloween....hopefully it won't be a scary announcement.

[SteelTown]

Province taking back welfare costs
City spent $30m on Ontario Works this year

October 31, 2008
Rachel De Lazzer and Dana Brown; With files from the Toronto Star
The Hamilton Spectator

Mayor Fred Eisenberger is welcoming news that the province will slowly take back many of the welfare costs it tossed onto the backs of towns and cities in the late 1990s.

"It is going to be of great benefit to us to do it, whether it's immediate or over time, as long as it's done," said Eisenberger last night, when told the province was expected to announce today it will reassume those costs over the next decade.

"The question becomes how specifically they're going to phase that and how that impacts the city of Hamilton financially ... So I think on the face of it, it's absolutely good news."

Sources told the Toronto Star that much of the Ontario Works welfare costs downloaded by former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris would return to the province.

Ontario Works cost the city $30 million in 2008. The city is also paying $41 million for the Ontario Disability Support Program, $41 million for social housing and $9 million for public health this year.

Offsetting all of those costs was $12 million in special one-time funding specifically for Hamilton, and the city's share -- almost $36 million -- of Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund money.

Under the new plan, towns and cities across Ontario will remain responsible for hefty social housing costs. The money municipalities get through the partnership fund will also be reduced because they will no longer be responsible for covering welfare.

Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Watson would not discuss specifics in the municipal-provincial report being released today.

Watson defended a review process that began in 2006.

"The damage was done over eight years. Some of it was done very quickly with no consultation by the Harris government," he said. "Perhaps we've been criticized for taking two years to get to this stage, but we wanted to do it thoughtfully and we wanted to get it right."

Ward 9 Councillor Brad Clark said the upload would not give municipalities "significant relief" because of the lengthy phase-in period, but he doesn't think the city can expect the province to do more, considering the struggling economy.

"I honestly had hoped it would be five years but I feared it would be 10," Clark said.

Andrea Horwath, NDP MPP for Hamilton Centre, said earlier in the day it's not just social services that need to come off the municipal plate, but all provincially mandated services.

"The kinds of programs that were downloaded to municipalities, including Hamilton, do not belong on the property tax base," she said.

In 2008, it cost the city $74 million to pay for provincially mandated programs, including social services. That's after provincial transfers and special funding reduced the annual $281-million cost of providing the programs in Hamilton.

[SteelTown]

Province announces relief for cities

By Dana Brown
The Hamilton Spectator

Hamilton will save upwards of $18 million after the province announced it will take back the costs of court security and Ontario Works, but the savings won’t all come at once.

The provincial government said it will take back costs for both programs, downloaded onto municipalities in the late 1990s, but it will take 10 years.

The Liberals say the plan means an net benefit of $1.5 billion to municipalities by 2018.

Court costs won’t start returning to the province until 2012 and Ontario Works costs won’t be uploaded until 2010.

 Mayor Fred Eisenberger said yesterday that it is welcoming news that the province will slowly take back many of the welfare costs it tossed onto the backs of towns and cities in the late 1990s.

"It is going to be of great benefit to us to do it, whether it's immediate or over time, as long as it's done," said Eisenberger last night, when told the province was expected to announce today it will reassume those costs over the next decade.

"The question becomes how specifically they're going to phase that and how that impacts the city of Hamilton financially ... So I think on the face of it, it's absolutely good news."

Ontario Works cost the city $30 million in 2008. The city is also paying $41 million for the Ontario Disability Support Program, $41 million for social housing and $9 million for public health this year.

Offsetting all of those costs was $12 million in special one-time funding specifically for Hamilton, and the city's share -- almost $36 million -- of Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund money.

In 2008, it cost the city $74 million to pay for provincially mandated programs, including social services. That's after provincial transfers and special funding reduced the annual $281-million cost of providing the programs in Hamilton.