More dollars for municipalities and the autonomy to decide how the money is spent.
That’s what members of Flin Flon city council are hoping MP candidates will pledge ahead of the federal election.
“Our key is a commitment to funding the aging infrastructure in the cities right across the nation,” said Mayor Cal Huntley, responding to a question at Tuesday’s council meeting. “I mean, it’s an ongoing problem. And letting the cities have some say in where the dollars go [is important].”
To illustrate his point, Huntley used a provincial example: the $20-million-plus upgrade of Highway 10 between Flin Flon and Bakers Narrows.
“We really appreciate the upgrade to the highway, but in all honesty I think a better service may have been done to the community if a portion of those dollars could have been put into the pipe in the ground and the roads in the city,” he said, drawing agreement from Coun. Colleen McKee.
“But we do appreciate the initiatives [that are] there and that kind of a thing,” Huntley continued. “But whatever government’s in place, we really are looking for a grassroots, at-the-civic-level participation in funding and our input into where that funding goes. We don’t want to be told where we have to spend it, because we know better than anybody else what we need to do to keep our city going.”
Coun. Ken Pawlachuk concurred, saying he would like to see the federal government and more so the provincial government “come to us and ask us not what we want [but] what we need.”
“We don’t see that,” he said.
“We go to them with a cap in hand, but the highway project and stuff like that have no input from us. It’s just, all of a sudden they’re doing it.”
Coun. Karen MacKinnon voiced her hope that more government dollars can be put into housing for seniors, both those who require long-term care and those who do not.
“I think that’s right across Canada it applies, and if something isn’t done quickly, we’re in big trouble,” she said.
Huntley stressed that the term “infrastructure” includes not only roads and pipes, but also “the social medium and the actual ability to live with quality of life in your community and all of the things that are involved in that.”
Asked about the city’s historical relationship with the federal government, Huntley said the best relations during his time on council involved the Liberals prior to their 2006 election loss.
Council made inroads with the Liberals regarding the then-proposed Communityplex recreation facility, he said, and there was a “very strong feeling” the Liberals would have made the project happen had they won.
Huntley said council participates with the feds through their MP or the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), a lobbying group.
Mark Kolt, chief administrative officer for the city, pointed out that FCM has long urged Ottawa to resolve what it calls the “infrastructure deficit” across Canada.
“Municipalities have the largest load of things on their plate but the smallest share of tax revenues,” he said.
