I've written three posts over the past couple of months focused on the GST for municipalities. One was in response to a TorStar report on the Liberal strategy for cities. The second responded to another, and supporting, editorial in The Star. The third was a copy of my letter written to the Liberal Party's Urban Committee and commenting, in a fair amount of detail, on their full report to the party.
Only the Greens appear to have seen how RIGHT and REASONABLE the One Cent Campaign championed by Toronto Mayor David Miller, and endorsed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, is.1
The other parties, if they address municipal issues at all, offer services and programs. They do not offer the autonomy for communities - the ability to set their own goals and design their own solutions which fit uniquely to their residents' needs - which one cent of the GST could deliver.
This Green policy, which respects the resolution of the FCM, should not fail to convince people who give it more than one cent's thought that it is the right way to go. Now if only other parties would get onside with it.
1 See the FCM's Emergency Resolution BCMC07.2.01, "Federal revenue sharing with municipalities," adopted at their 2007 annual conference.
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