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The Harper government suggested Monday that municipalities should not jump to conclusions about the financial impact of regulations it is drafting to crack down on raw sewage.
“I think it’s important for people to wait and see what the regulations say, what the timelines are and so on,” said Environment Minister Jim Prentice in an interview. “This is a question of prioritization and this is the first time that we as a country are saying that . . . in the world of 2009, an industrial democracy like Canada can no longer be discharging its untreated sewage into our natural environment. It’s not acceptable.”
The comments were in response to scathing criticism from communities that the government is proposing regulations that could lead to billions of dollars in tax hikes across Canada that would compromise local economic development.
In a letter sent last week to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Basil Stewart, suggested that the government’s plan could have a “destructive impact” since it didn’t have a long-term funding plan to meet its goals.
It estimated that cities would need to spend at least $12 billion over 20 years to crack down on the pollution, but that there was not enough money available from existing transfer payments and programs.
Prentice said the draft regulations, expected before the end of the year, will provide an “orderly” plan.
“Over the next 20 years, as these guidelines are implemented, there will certainly be financial mechanisms to cover the cost,” Prentice said. “But the real point is that municipalities will, in an orderly way over time, have to make this a priority for investment.”
Meantime, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff pledged in a speech in Toronto to improve an existing program that transfers gas tax revenues directly to municipalities for infrastructure projects that promote sustainable development criteria. Liberal infrastructure critic Gerard Kennedy said it was a first step toward offering more federal money to address local infrastructure needs and competitiveness across the country.
“Different than Mr. Harper, we don’t think that municipalities should be abandoned and that property tax payers should be stuck with generational costs like this,” Kennedy said. “When you’ve got infrastructure coming due (for repairs or upgrades), generally speaking, the federal government has been there in the past and needs to be there in the future.”
The municipalities applauded Ignatieff’s new commitment.
“Canada can’t grow its economy or compete in the post-recession world without healthy, vibrant cities and communities,” Stewart said in a statement on Monday. “Canadians know their country is only as strong as the places where they live and work and they don’t want to relive the mistakes of the past. They want to move forward — not backwards.”