Region of Halton CAO Pat Moyle presented a verbal report to Regional Council last week with an update on the Drummond Report and how it will affect the region and surrounding municipalities.
Christina Commisso from the Milton Canadian Champion wrote about the presentation as well. Here is the link to the article.
What I found to be quite telling were his comments (and I have been saying this for quite some time before being elected AND after) that municipalities need to live within their means and stick to their core business. All the nickels and dimes we spend will eventually add up. And with the proposals for cuts at the provincial level will eventually make their way down to the municipal level and the property tax base.
You can watch CAO Pat Moyle’s presentation at the Halton website here and it begins just before the 36 minute part.
Too soon to predict Drummond Report impact: CAO
With almost 30 per cent of the Region’s revenue coming from Queen’s Park, Halton’s CAO said the effects of Ontario’s austerity plan will be felt by all.
However, it’s still too soon to predict the degree of the impact in Halton, said Pat Moyle during Wednesday’s regional council meeting, where he quipped, “We are living in a post-Drummond world.”
Moyle provided councillors with an overview of findings from the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services — known as the Drummond Report — but said some of the 362 recommendations are too vague to determine what kind of financial impact they would have locally.
“Some of the recommendations have already been discounted,” said Moyle, pointing to the end of all-day kindergarten and delaying the uploading of social program costs from municipalities to the Province.
Moyle said about 80 of Drummond’s recommendations have a direct bearing on Halton.
“When the Province sneezes, we catch a cold,” he joked.
In the report, Moyle pointed to removing public health as a Regional responsibility. With the Region funding 35.5 per cent of public health initiatives, Moyle wrote, “It is critical that prior to implementing any actions with respect to public health service delivery or funding, that the Province reveal its implementation plan.”
A recommendation to integrate the Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Supports programs could, according to the report, increase caseloads in Halton from 2,000 to 9,000 annually.
Centralized bargaining for emergency services would also have a local impact as police services are bargained at the regional level and fire at the local level.
Other recommendations that if implemented will impact Halton include the consolidation of Ontario’s 80 hydro utilities along regional lines and re-evaluating the portion of slots revenue the OLG distributes to host municipalities.
Moyle said the Drummond report reveals some important lessons for all municipalities: governments must live within their means and stick to their core business, debt hurts credit ratings and it’s important to listen to the governments’ finance people.
“The lessons learned by Drummond are lessons that have applied in Halton for the long term,” said Moyle, adding, We could better withstand the shocks of Drummond.”
