Big-city mayors to push for power from provinces

Canadian Press

(Ottawa)  Canada's cities, chafing under their lowly status as provincial
peons, will band together next week to demand recognition as autonomous
governments with their own seat at federal-provincial conferences.

That demand for empowerment begins at a two-day meeting hosted by Toronto
Mayor David Miller, who will receive mayors or councillors from nine of the
country's 10 largest cities starting Thursday. Cities have grumbled for
years that their limited clout puts housing and infrastructure at the mercy
of the provincial governments who are their constitutionally appointed
overlords. They're setting their demands before Prime Minister Paul
Martin's policy-setting throne speech on Feb. 2.

The cities will ask for more money from the federal government and a little
more respect from their provincial legislatures, said one councillor from
the host city. "There's no constitutional impediments against it and
there's no reason why we can't do it," said Toronto city councillor
Olivia Chow. Being recognized as an order of government would mean we are
in a true partnership with the federal and provincial governments."

The urban agenda gained national momentum during Mr. Martin's leadership
campaign when he pledged a new deal for cities featuring a slice of the
$4.5-billion federal gas tax. The prime minister appears to be softening on
that commitment, which has been dismissed as a complicated cash transfer
that would need to be worked out with wary provincial governments. But he
has raised hopes at city halls across the country and vows to deliver on
his commitment to lend them a hand.

The prime minister will be reminded of his campaign pledge at the two-day
meeting featuring delegations from Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina,
Winnipeg, Ottawa, Halifax and Quebec City. Calgary has declined to attend,
which is the maiden conference of Canada's loosely named C-10  the urban
hubs that comprise roughly half of Canada's population.

Ms. Chow said the cities will ask for a total exemption on GST for
municipal purchases (they pay only 57 per cent of the full tax now); five
cents per litre from the federal gasoline tax; and the current
$1.5-billion, 10-year federal infrastructure fund to be transferred to
cities immediately. They will also ask provincial governments to recognize
their largest urban centres as official orders of government eligible to
send representatives to federal-provincial conferences.

One province didn't even wait for that proposal to surface before shooting
it down Friday. "There is no question of Quebec ceding any part of our
jurisdiction," said Stephane Gosselin, a spokesman for the province's
Municipal Affairs Department. "And those jurisdictions include being
the sole intermediary at the table with the federal government." Mr.
Gosselin also said it wouldn't be fair to grant the largest cities some
special status to which other municipalities are not entitled. Quebec's
municipal affairs minister, Jean-Marc Fournier, sent a letter Thursday to
the mayors of Montreal and Quebec City reminding them they have no legal
right to deal directly with Ottawa.

The best municipalities could hope for is to sit in on a few
federal-provincial-municipal meetings, said University of Toronto professor
Nelson Wiseman. He said a total overhaul of the system is impossible
because the 1867 Constitution is stacked against cities. Designed long
before municipalities were saddled with massive migration or the need to
pave six-lane boulevards, the Constitution's Article 92 lumps cities into
the realm of provincial responsibility  along with saloons, taverns,
sanatoriums and hospitals. "Provinces decide everything from a city's
boundaries to the taxes it can raise," Mr. Wiseman said. "And
that's impossible to change. Nobody gives up power."


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