Elections
Will you complete the job of uploading social services costs to the Province? Why or why not?
Responses to the question: "Will you complete the job of uploading social services costs to the Province? Why or why not?"
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5 Candidate Responses (top)
| Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Erik Coverdale | Yes | The Green party has pledged to meet the promised upload of $1.5 billion in social service and court security costs by 2018 and has also agreed not to download costs, or add new ones to Ontario's limited property tax base. |
| Glenn Langton | No | The government has had 50 years to reduce poverty and reliance on social programs in Ontario yet we have more now than ever, Libertarians do not believe in government forcibly taking peoples property ( money ) to give to those they deem more fitting, Libertarians believe that private charities can and do a better job of providing for those in need than government ever will, Just think, if you had the tax dollars back in your pocket and were asked to give a dollar to a charity like the salvation army or a food bank, or a government bureaucrats? which would you choose? the government is driving private charities out of business with regulation and over taxation so they cannot compete with the welfare state, thereby creating a government monopoly on charity...this is absolutely wrong. |
| Robert Maton | Yes | Certain cities have high costs for social services while others do not. Because they may provide fewer services, or have high residential costs, wealthier communities often export their social service costs to poorer municipalities where comprehensive services exist for the least advantaged. These are costly and currently largely paid for by the municipality providing the services. The province needs to upload and redistribute the costs of social services so that all municipalities pay a more equal share of the costs. |
| Ted McMeekin | Yes | I understand the importance of this commitment to our municipal partners. We're uploading $2.7 billion from municipalities, freeing up room in their budgets to invest in local priorities and control property taxes.
Unlike the Hudak PCs, we'll honour our uploading commitments, because ultimately, there's only one taxpayer. We're uploading costs for seniors' drugs, court security, social assistance, public health, and public transit - with a plan to upload an additional $500 million between now and 2018. When the Harris-Hudak PCs were in government, they downloaded $3 billion of costs onto municipalities - including child care, transit, housing, and public health - leading to higher property taxes and an infrastructure deficit. Tim Hudak has a $14-billion hole in his platform. With this $14 billion in unfunded giveaways and tax cuts, we know that Hudak is planning to download costs again, pushing municipalities to the brink. He's already refused to commit to complete our download, meaning $500 million a year in new property taxes or service cuts. We've invested $62 billion in infrastructure since 2003, with another $35 billion to come in the next three years, helping to fix sewers and water mains and improve recreation centres and arenas while creating hundreds of thousands of local jobs. Here's what some of our municipal partners are saying: "[Tim Hudak] was very clear. He is going to stop it... The uploading has to continue in a major way." - Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, Toronto Star, Aug. 23 - http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1043843--no-repeat-performance-on-downloading-hudak-tells-mayors "If uploading stops, we will have higher property taxes," - Oakville Mayor Rob Burton, Toronto Star, Sept. 23 - http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1058836 |
| Trevor Westerhoff | Yes | During the Harris and Eaves years of provincial government, millions of dollars of provincial cost-sharing was downloaded to the municipalities. This included hospital, infrastructure spending, court security, education and social assistance. The Liberals promised to upload this money back to the province by 2018. That is seven years away. New Democrats would speed this process up by cost-sharing with municipalities.
A new, three-year dedicated fund will provide $70 million annually to help municipalities with road and bridge repairs. The operating costs of municipal transit systems will be split 50-50. Costs for social assistance and court security will continue to be uploaded. And the NDP will make a commitment not to download the cost of hazardous household waste disposal onto municipalities, or consumers in the form of eco-fees. |
Response Summary (top)
| Brief Response | Count | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 4 | 80.0% |
| No | 1 | 20.0% |
| Maybe | 0 | 0.0% |
3 Candidates Have Not Responded (top)
| Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale | ||
|---|---|---|
| Donna Skelly | ||
| Peter Melanson | ||
| Rick Gundermann | ||
