The mayor of Tecumseh vows to keep pressuring the province to create another revenue stream to fix crumbling infrastructure.
At the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference this week, the province shot down a call to raise the provincial portion of the HST by 1% to fix roads and bridges.
Gary McNamara says it might take a couple of years to convince the province, but municipal politicians won't give up. He says too many capital projects are being neglected and the money is better handled at the municipal level.
"Our residents have far more confidence in their municipal politicians to deliver on improvements to infrastructure than our provincial and federal counterparts," says McNamara.
McNamara says Ontario municipalities need an extra $4.9-billion of revenue over the next decade just to maintain infrastructure. He says property taxes may have to go up, because municipalities provide 80% of all services and is responsible for two thirds of infrastructure.
"91% of our residents don't believe that the province is a good manager of delivering services to them," McNamara says.
McNamara says there's no other way around the infrastructure problem.
"The only other solution is, I guess you're OK to raise property taxes of $4.9-billion to meet the challenge, because if you don't, then you're going to be deferring your capital for many years to come or cut services," the mayor says.
