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RON LAMBERT per Joe Hueglin
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Date Posted: 10:28:43 02/19/03 Wed
Author Host/IP: d150-99-156.home.cgocable.net/24.150.99.156
'Betrayed!' mayors fume
Manley's money for city services enrages Murray
Wednesday, February 19th, 2003
By Mary Agnes Welch and Mia Rabson
Mayor Glen Murray says Finance Minister John Manley's reply to months of high-profile lobbying by the country's big-city mayors for more infrastructure money was a slap in the face.
"This was John Manley's way of saying 'drop dead,' " Murray said.
Murray, in Ottawa yesterday to speak for Canada's big-city mayors, said the cash is so minimal the federal government might as well not even bother.
"Shocked, stunned, amazed, betrayed -- those were some of the words used by my colleagues," Murray said.
Manley's budget gave Canadian cities $100 million a year over 10 years for urban infrastructure -- roads, sewers, parks, bridges and the like.
Murray was asking for 20 times that amount -- $2 billion every year for a decade.
Canada's cities need about $57 billion to bring infrastructure up to snuff, the mayor said.
If the cash set aside in yesterday's budget is spread evenly among Canada's 20 largest cities, Winnipeg will get roughly $5 million this year -- enough to fix a few streets but not enough to make a dent in Winnipeg's $1 billion infrastructure deficit, Murray said.
In his budget speech, Manley said he recognizes that "infrastructure renewal tops the list of challenges faced by Canada's cities and communities."
"Today we reaffirm our commitment to the renewal of Canada's infrastructure well into the future."
Echoing Murray's condemnation, federal NDP Leader Jack Layton said Manley did nothing of the sort.
"It is so dramatically inadequate, I'm shocked," Layton said.
Murray said the Liberals paid lip-service to federal infrastructure spending in the last election, in government reports and in last fall's throne speech.
"There must have been an invasion of the body snatchers, because the people who wrote the throne speech were not the same people who delivered the budget," said Murray. "Would the real John Manley please stand up?"
He said the federal government may be "cutting off its nose to spite its face," since decaying urban infrastructure will stall the country's economic growth.
"It's nothing," he said of the budget cash. "It's a major abandonment by the government of Canada of our national competitiveness."
Manley's budget also set out $2 billion for the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund, which pays for large-scale projects such as Manitoba's expansion of the Red River Floodway.
Manitoba Finance Minister Greg Selinger was waiting for that kind of announcement to feel sure Ottawa would help pay for the floodway expansion.
Manley also committed another $320 million for the affordable-housing initiative, which provides funding for the private and non-profit sectors to build more affordable housing units.
As is the case with many of Manley's promises, funding for the affordable-housing initiative begins modestly -- just $30 million this year and $50 million next year.
There is no breakdown of how the remaining $240 million will flow, but Manley promises federal spending on the initiative will hit $1 billion by 2008.
This latest funding comes on top of $680 million poured into the initiative in 2001.
Ottawa also renewed for three years its housing renovation program, set to expire at the end of next month. Now, $128 million a year will be spent on the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program to help repair and upgrade existing low-income housing.
As well, it extended its Supporting Communities Partnership program for three years, spending $135 million a year to allow community groups funding to provide support services and facilities for the homeless.
maryagness.welch@freepress.mb.ca
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
PHOTO
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Civic leaders to meet here
Canada's big-city mayors will gather in Winnipeg this spring to salvage their year-old effort to wrench more cash out of Ottawa for roads and bridges.
Winnipeg is hosting the annual meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) in May. Mayor Glen Murray said that's when the country's urban bosses will rethink their strategy after their failure to win billions in infrastructure funding from Finance Minister John Manley yesterday.
Murray said it might be time to rethink the cordial relationship between the Liberals and Canada's cities.
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© 2003 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
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