For
immediate release:
April 12, 2005
What
government giveth, government taketh away in in Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant
New Municipal Funding
Program Will Cut $14 Million Out Of Local Municipal Budgets
Queens Park - Under a new funding
mechanism for municipalities announced by the McGuinty Liberals on March
31, the Counties of Haldimand, Norfolk and Brant will lose over $14 million
in provincial transfer payments for local services and social programs.
“This is an unacceptable
attack on the people of Haldimand, Norfolk and Brant Counties,”
said Toby Barrett, MPP for Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant. “The McGuinty
Liberals promised that they would support municipalities, but now they
are showing their true colours. The McGuinty Liberals are pulling funding
and putting our municipal governments in a position where they will either
have to raise taxes, or cut key services.”
Based on funding allocations
from the Community Reinvestment Fund in 2004, local municipalities will
lose the following amount annually under the new McGuinty Liberal, Ontario
Municipal Partnership Fund:
· Brant County $2.9
million – a decrease of 48 per cent
· Haldimand County $3.8 million – a drop of 46 per cent
· Norfolk County $7.3 million – or 54 per cent
“How do the McGuinty
Liberals expect our local municipalities to deal with these massive funding
cuts at a time when the cost of delivering social services continues to
rise,” asked Barrett. “The McGuinty Liberals have not been
forthcoming with the real accounting behind this program or a justification
for their new formula. This is the same kind of Liberal fiscal incompetence
that has driven the provincial deficit up to $6 billion just this year.”
“Apparently when Dalton
McGuinty and Greg Sorbara are willing to push their agenda of financial
ruin onto our municipal governments as well,” said Barrett. “It
seems ironic that when the McGuinty Liberals are constantly whining for
more money from Ottawa in transfer payments, the Premier has no concern
about cutting back Ontario’s municipal transfer payments by $47
million.”
- 30 -
For more information please
contact MPP Toby Barrett at: 519-428-0446, 905-765-8413 or 1-800-903-8629
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