Ford’s cuts to Ontario municipalities forcing service cuts, downloads costs onto families

QUEEN’S PARK - Ottawa NDP MPP Joel Harden and NDP Municipal Affairs critic, Jeff Burch, issued the following statement after the City of Ottawa’s finance and economic development committee approved a property tax increase, a direct result of Doug Ford’s cuts to Ontario municipalities.

“Doug Ford is cutting critical services — including public health — and downloading the costs of those provincially funded programs onto municipalities, and families that pay municipal taxes.

Let’s be clear: if Ottawa or any other community has to raise municipal taxes this year, it’s a Ford Tax.

The alternative, with Ford’s funding cuts, is forcing cities to look at cutting community programs that families depend on. Either option is unthinkable for many city councillors and municipal leaders.

City services like ambulance, child care, long-term care, waste management, libraries, and public health are all threatened by Doug Ford’s cuts. In Ottawa, residents may be paying more for their LRT project as Ford cuts funding earmarked for the long-term transit project.

Ford is forcing Ontarians to foot the bill for his cuts to public services, while he continues to find plum jobs for his friends, and cuts taxes for the wealthiest Ontarians and most profitable corporations.

Ontario families didn’t vote to see the services they depend on ripped away from them, while they pay more for Ford’s agenda of cuts and privatization.”