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?"

← Back to Election Page

In This Page:

4 Candidate Responses (top)

Hamilton Mountain
CandidateBrief ResponseFull Response
Hans Wienhold No When my job is completed, social services shall be completely *off* loaded. Government should not be in the social services business at all.

Canada, I have been told forever, is a very compassionate society. If this is true then Canadians need not employ the violence of the state to manifest it's compassion. A free people will put their own money where their mouths are without the need for an armed, bloated and politically manipulated middle man which, in the end, shows far more compassion for itself and it's employees than it does for those it presumes to help. (How do you like our "one size fits all" education monopoly?)
Monique Taylor 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. 
Sophia Aggelonitis Yes Ontario Liberals 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
Tony Morris Yes The Green Party will complete the promised upload of $1.5 billion in social services and court costs by 2018. Without a revenue base to pay for these services, municipalities are at a disadvantage in providing efficient and effective programs.

Response Summary (top)

Brief ResponseCount% of Total
Yes375.0%
No125.0%
Maybe00.0%

4 Candidates Have Not Responded (top)

Hamilton Mountain
Brian Goodwin
Geordie Elms
Jim Enos
Trevor Pettit