AMO's Social and Economic Prosperity Review

October 30, 2024

Overview

Municipalities provide services that Ontarians rely on every day. The fiscal framework that enables municipalities to do this work is broken. Failing to fix this problem fails residents, small businesses, health and public safety partners, and major industries.

AMO calls on Premier Ford to do what taxpayers expect – work together with municipal governments to get it done for Ontarians. Strong and sustainable municipalities mean safe, healthy, affordable and prosperous communities through investments in what Ontarians care about most, including:

Housing: Municipalities own and operate half a trillion dollars of public infrastructure. Over the next 10 years, they are planning for more than $250 billion of capital expenditures – with around $100 billion related to growth.
Healthcare: In 2022, municipalities across Ontario spent $3.3 billion on health despite only receiving $1.8 in provincial grants. When public health, long-term care, and ambulance funding don’t keep pace with need, we see the impacts in hospitals across the province.
Cost of Living: Ontario has the second highest property taxes in Canada, and they continued to rise in 2024 as municipalities dealt with inflation, growth, and issues like homelessness. Property taxpayers – including seniors on fixed incomes and struggling small businesses – simply cannot afford to pay for more.
Public Safety: Municipal resources fund police forces. The impacts of inadequate approaches to mental health, addictions, and homelessness challenges put police resources under strain.

AMO Positions

AMO continues to ask the provincial government to sit down with municipalities and work together on a social and economic prosperity review. This should include a joint review of revenues, costs and financial risks, as well as an analysis of Ontario’s infrastructure investment and service delivery needs.
The goal is to update the provincial-municipal fiscal relationship to support strong economic foundations, sustainable communities, and quality of life. While these conversations are already happening in the media and at dinner tables, a comprehensive discussion needs to happen between both orders of government.
AMO’s Memorandum of Understanding with the provincial government is the ideal framework for a formal collaboration where we can work together to achieve real results for Ontarians. The municipal fiscal sustainability challenge is urgent, province-wide, and central to Ontario’s social and economic prosperity.

On behalf of municipalities, AMO is calling on the provincial government to make investments that will improve the quality of life of Ontarians in communities across the province. Municipalities need a provincial partner that will:

Sustainably invest in public infrastructure to support growth, improve transportation, and prepare for the impacts of climate change.
Reduce the province's $4 billion reliance on municipal revenues to fund provincial programs, like health and social services, so municipal tax dollars can go toward supporting thriving communities.
Take action on the root causes of homelessness through investments in mental health and addictions programming and improved income security that allows people to keep a roof over their heads.