The NDP’s critic on GTA issues is calling on the Liberal government to immediately restore millions of dollars in social housing funding that the City of Toronto is counting on to balance its budget.
The proposed $11.6 billion operating budget relies on the province agreeing to provide the city with $86 million in funding that was cut when it cancelled the Toronto Pooling Compensation fund in 2013 but so far the province has expressed little willingness to do so with Finance Minister Charles Sousa dismissing the idea outright in a statement released Tuesday.
“Instead of doing the right thing, the Liberals are forcing Torontonians to finance the final downloading of provincial social housing costs onto the municipality,” MPP Cheri DiNovo said in a statement released Thursday morning. “With the loss of this provincial funding, property taxes will need to go up an additional 3.6 per cent or programs will need to be cut. The Liberals have wasted $8 billion with their risky public-private partnership schemes, and now Toronto’s most vulnerable citizens are paying the price.”
Mayor John Tory had told reporters on Wednesday that negotiations with the province were ongoing, however in his statement Sousa clarified that the province wouldn’t “reverse its position” but has offered the city a $200 million line of credit with interest payable to the province at “commercial rates.”
In her statement, DiNovo warned that by refusing to budge from its position, the province will put Toronto in a precarious position going forward with the anticipated loss in funding rising to $129 million in 2016 and every year thereafter.
“The Wynne government has downloaded 40 per cent of the province’s social housing costs onto the city with just 20 per cent of the population. These cuts have left Toronto with a half-billion dollar funding gap over five years,” DiNovo wrote.
The City of Toronto is required by law to have a balanced budget.
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