Today the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities lauded the NDP platform for it’s commitment to invest in real solutions for Canadian cities. Below is the letter posted to the FCM website for your perusal.This is great news, as no party has yet to fully dedicate themselves to the betterment of our municipalities, where the real implementation of infrastructure needs and other local necessities takes place. Our municipalities are becoming more and more burdened by off loading from provinces and the federal government, and the NDP looks to bridge the financial gap.
OTTAWA – The following statement was released today by the President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), Hans Cunningham, in response to the NDP election platform:
“Today’s NDP platform is the first in this election campaign to call for new, long-term investments in Canada´s cities and communities.
We applaud the NDP´s commitment to make permanent federal investments that help municipalities fight growing traffic gridlock and put more police on local streets.
The NDP’s commitment to permanently invest $400 million per year in public transit would help cities fight rising commute times. The NDP plan would replace recently expired federal transit funding by putting more of the taxes Canadians pay at the gas pump into new buses, subways, and commuter rail.
The NDP’s commitment to double and make permanent the Police Officer Recruitment Fund would help municipalities put more police on the street today and for years to come. The NDP crime strategy would provide badly-needed assistance to municipal property taxpayers, who currently pay 60 % of the national policing bill, including $600 million in downloaded federal policing duties.
The NDP’s commitment to significantly increase long-term affordable housing investments would reduce homelessness and the burden it puts on taxpayer-funded police, emergency room and social services.
We welcome the NDP’s commitments to upgrade water systems and invest in northern highways. These proposals should be implemented as part of a long-term plan to protect and expand municipal infrastructure investments.
40 per cent of core federal investments in municipalities will expire in the next 36 months. Today the NDP clearly laid out how it would work with municipalities to address this challenge. Now Canadians are waiting for all parties to lay out concrete plans for the future of cities and communities.”
For more information please contact:
Mouktar Abdillahi, Media Relations Officer, 613-907-6395
* The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has been the national voice of municipal government since 1901. FCM represents close to 90 per cent of the Canadian population – more than 2000 municipal governments across the country.
