Guelph’s mayor says, from a municipal standpoint, the 2018 federal budget is not what he was hoping for.
Most notably, said Mayor Cam Guthrie, is a lack of funding in the budget for dedicated to social housing.
The federal government announced a National Housing Strategy in November and many — including Guthrie — hoped the funding would begin to flow this year.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities said in a news release that the federal government missed a key opportunity by not including funding in the the budget.
“We were really lobbying hard to have some money dedicated to our social housing and the plan that came out from the government, but there is really nothing there,” said Guthrie.
There is a need for affordable housing in every city in Canada, said Guthrie. “Maybe some clarity will come out in regards to that in the coming days, but so far it is one of the key disappointments.”
Guthrie noted a number of positives in the budget, including emergency funding for opioid treatment.
The quicker that funding is handed out, the more lives can be positively impacted, said Guthrie.
“Mayors like myself like to talk about infrastructure funding, but those are buildings and roads — when it comes to opioid crisis we are talking about people,” he said.
Guthrie welcomed funding intended to end boil water advisories on First Nations. “I say that more as a citizen than as a mayor. It’s a long-standing issue and it just needs to get done,” said Guthrie.
The government’s commitment to ending boil water advisories by 2021 is also important for Lloyd Longfield, member of parliament for Guelph.
“In the last year and a half we got 56 advisories lifted and we have about 60 to go. We are trying to get all boil water advisories lifted,” said Longfield.
Guelph has a connection to lifting the boil water advisories, said Longfield, due to research on the matter being conducted at University of Guelph and a number of clean tech businesses in the city that support clean water projects.
“I see that as a good opportunity for Guelph to pitch in,” said Longfield.
The budget’s focus on providing funding for women entrepreneurs aligns with work done by Innovation Guelph, like the Rhyze Project, said Longfield.
In last year’s budget — which coincided with Canada’s 150th birthday — the government offered free admission to the National Park system for every Canadian. From 2018 on, admission to those parks is now free for children.
Because his father was a teacher, Longfield said many of his childhood summers were spent camping in Canada’s National Parks. “We had a trailer that slept six — and there was eight of us,” he recalled.
The 2018 federal budget is expected to run a deficit of $18 billion and the federal Liberals are not expected to balance the budget by 2019 as they promised as part of their election platform.
Not balancing the budget joins election reform as a key campaign promise the Liberal government will not keep.
“In the grocery lines I still hear about electoral reform,” noted Longfield.
As long as there is a good explanation of why things change, Longfield said he is comfortable with them.
“The key thing for me is, if my community isn’t comfortable and I am not comfortable then we keep hammering on the table,” he said.
